Houses of the Holy
by HowdyU
Summary: Spirited away from Konoha at an early age, Naruto finds a new family amid the strife of a battlefield as old as the shinobi nations. But what will he do when his new allies’ ambition is to change the world through a baptism by fire? An Akatsuki!Naruto fic
1. Beat It

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Story Title**: _Houses of the Holy_ by Led Zeppelin.

**Teaser**: Spirited away from Konoha at an early age, Naruto finds a new family amid the strife of a battlefield as old as the shinobi nations. But what will he do when his new allies' ambition is to change the world through a baptism by fire? Never give up, of course.

**A/N**: Welcome to my first Naruto fiction. I'm excited to write this story and was driven to do so mostly because of how terrible most of the fiction out there is for Naruto – especially the types of stories I'm interested in reading.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I like using song names to title my work and chapters. It's easier and more fun than trying to think up something on my own.

Important: If you want to read this story and not be confused and/or spoiled, I suggest you stay up to date on the Japanese manga release. This story is not for people who watch subbed or dubbed anime or simply follow the English release of the manga. I wouldn't want to be responsible for dumping an endless supply of spoilers on you. So, I suggest you catch up in the manga and stay caught up if you intend to read this story. Otherwise, you will be incredibly confused.

This story is my take on the Adopted!Naruto coupled with Akatsuki!Naruto genres. I have never read a fiction with a good plot that involved Akatsuki!Naruto, yet I've always wondered what a non-goody-two-shoes Naruto would be like. This will not be a Dark!Evil!Naruto fic, as I don't believe that being on the "bad guy" side necessitates a character being a twisted bastard. I also don't consider this a Super!Naruto fic, especially considering that in manga canon Naruto looks like he will have achieved the title of "Strongest Ninja Ever" before he reaches his seventeenth birthday. Having said that, Naruto will be much stronger much earlier on, but don't expect him to be killing S-class criminals at the tender age of thirteen like we see in so many Super! fics. Considering that Naruto didn't have any legitimate training until he graduated from the academy in canon, this doesn't seem too outrageous to me.

I am not planning on Naruto obtaining any super bloodline limits or crossover powers or the like. He's going to be strong enough on his own without spoiling everything by giving him lazer eyes or something equally stupid.

Having said that, this story will not be an AU and will stick very closely to the canon plotline for the first half of the story at least. It will obviously be written from a different perspective. Since the manga is still being written I will most likely incorporate any plot twists or possible powers gained by Naruto and other characters down the line so long as I am able.

Pairings: I do have an idea of who Naruto will be paired with, and it will be a female. I don't enjoy reading, writing, talking, or thinking about slash fiction. Ever. Not to mention it's completely out of character for Naruto. However, there will be very little romance in this story, and the pairing won't happen for a very, very long time.

Finally, for those of you worried about a parade of OC characters with God-mode powers, don't worry. I intend to do my best with what Kishimoto has given me (which is quite a lot actually). There will be some OCs early and later on in the story, but they won't play major parts throughout.

Naruto will spend a large amount of time in Konoha and we will have interactions with other rookies and such, so don't worry. Naruto will be going to the Chuunin Exams. Look forward to it.

This story's rating will be **M** for violence and language. I don't intend to make either too over the top, but it's just too much of a bother trying to censor myself while writing.

As always, any compliments and constructive criticisms will be much appreciated.

**Chapter Title**: _Beat It_ by Michael Jackson.

* * *

She met the next passing group with a small smile and a nod. Another small caravan of merchants leaving the village on their way to places unknown. By the low piles on the carts and the distinctive rattling of metal on metal she could guess that they were steel weapons, most likely on their way to Suna. While the country of Wind had plenty of raw materials to make such items, they lacked the fuel to power the multitude of forges needed to sustain a shinobi village without foreign trade. The vast forests along this road, however, provided all the fuel necessary to make such weapons here.

Looking ahead, the road seemed to be empty for a decent stretch. She loved the peace and quiet that she found wandering leisurely along the forested lane. Her schedule was fairly lax today and she took advantage of the extra time to soak up the atmosphere. The rustling of leaves as they were gently buffeted by the wind provided a semblance of peace to her always alert and often weary mind.

Most of all, she loved the sun shining down on her over the tops of the trees and through the leaves of the dense forest. The simple joy of sunlight never ceased to lighten her heavy, battle-wearied soul.

She smiled to herself, and for the first time in a long time it was a true smile; one that reached even to her dulled eyes -- eyes that showed pain and sadness beyond her years.

This was almost like a vacation for her. Almost.

Her moment of emotional indulgence ended as she pulled her face back into a neutral mask.

She was nearing the village now and the traffic began to pick up. All kinds of civilian caravans and small groups of shinobi, often accompanying the civilians, passed on their way out of the village. These people were barely afforded a cursory glance and a nod of acknowledgement as she continued on. Ahead she could make out others moving towards the village. Apparently even a leisurely stroll for her was faster than these travelers were willing to go.

No matter. She still had an hour or two before her meeting with… an associate. It really wouldn't do to be late though. Businessmen were even more obsessive over time than shinobi, on occasion.

Finally the monolithic wooden gates came into view as she rounded a bend that turned to the straightaway leading up to the village. Frankly, they and the great wall from which they opened amused her. Konoha was the only ninja village that bothered with such an ineffective defense. A wall that pitiful would only hinder civilians or young ninjas-in-training. Any ninja ranked chuunin or higher could scale it in moments. Even the rocky shield wall that surrounded Suna and defended it from the harsh desert winds could be overcome by trained ninja, and the pittance of a defense before her now was only a small fraction the size of that geological monstrosity.

Then again, she hadn't sensed any patrols outside the village since crossing the border into Fire Country. And she would have, if they were there.

Waiting in line to have her status checked by the two buffoons at the gate, she began to regret not moving faster in an effort to arrive earlier and therefore avoid the late morning rush to enter the village. She had begun paying closer attention to the people and conversations surrounding her, and what she found was disturbing to her cautious mind.

These people did not act like any people she had ever seen in a ninja village. They were far too carefree. Far too ignorant of the dangers of the world. The ninjas entering and leaving the village and those at the gates were the worst of all. The Raikage himself could have walked calmly through the gates in full regalia and she doubted they would be any the wiser. Bitterness and anger rose up from someplace in her stomach and her mind began to rage. Didn't these people have any idea what the real world was like? This was a ninja village, wasn't it? Hadn't they barely escaped complete destruction at the hands of the monster Kyuubi not five years ago? The Third Great Secret World War had only come to a conclusion a year ago with a Cease-Fire agreement between Konoha and Kumo, hadn't it?

And these stupid people were talking and laughing when they should be focused on security!

This was the reason why the wars didn't stop. This was the reason why again and again families were torn to pieces and lives were destroyed. Because no one could see beyond dinner that evening. Because no one thought beyond catching up at the bar that night with their war buddies. What did these ignorant fools know about war, about sacrifice, about pain?

Not enough. Not nearly enough if they had so quickly reverted to this state of malaise, of indifference. This was the greatest of the shinobi villages? The unbreakable Konoha? How had it survived with such an easy outlook on the world? Everything was unstable and war would come again, yet these people acted as though their troubles were over for good. How foolish.

She reigned in her anger as her turn at the gate finally came. As she walked up to the two men seated at the covered table just inside the wall she was addressed for the first time since entering Fire Country.

"Papers?" the man asked in a bored tone without looking up from his notes. He wore a forest green flak jacket and dark blue shinobi pants and shirt. Standard Konoha attire. A chuunin. A nobody.

"I'm sorry sir, but I'm not ninja trained, nor am I a merchant," she replied calmly. This was a lie. She had plenty of training, but no papers, as she had never been registered with any village. Dressed as she was in civilian sandals, baggy light brown pants that reached to her calves, and a loose, light blue long-sleeved shirt, she appeared the perfect picture of civilian innocence. Even the sturdy backpack she wore was a bulky civilian model not designed for the rigors of the ninja lifestyle.

The man finally looked up and started slightly. "I'm very sorry miss. It's the standard opening question. They make me ask it, you see," he replied in what he most certainly thought was a charming way.

She thought it repulsive.

"A civilian then." He received a nod. "May I ask your business in Konoha today, miss?"

Ignoring the stupid grin on his face, she quickly replied. "I'm visiting my uncle and his family. They're merchants here in town."

"Ah, family business then. Well, that's all we need to know. Enjoy Konoha."

And that's how she infiltrated the great Village Hidden in the Leaves. Ignoring the other townspeople in the crowded streets she quickly made her way into the heart of the city where the commotion would draw attention away from her actions. Ducking into an empty alleyway she set to work. It was time to see what beautiful, sunny Konoha had to offer besides idiot chuunin guards.

Then she moved on to her meeting. If all went well she would be done in a few hours' time and have the rest of the day to enjoy herself around town.

* * *

She emerged from her meeting angry once again. Not for any reason dealing with the meeting itself. It had gone perfectly. So long as her people were available to pick up the deliveries - and they would be, she would see to that - their operation would continue without a hitch for the foreseeable future. At least in that one aspect.

She was angry because while in the meeting she had had an epiphany. An epiphany as to why the people in this village could get away with their happy-go-lucky attitudes in a ninja society and still survive, even flourish. The answer was sacrifice, and the sacrifice was their heroes. Heroes that had given themselves entirely to this village, this village that disrespected their sacrifices by becoming complacent time and again. They carved their faces on a mountainside and then forgot about them. Forgot how they shed blood and tears for this place. Forgot how they gave their time, their health, their sanity, and their very lives so that the Village Hidden in the Leaves could go on bumbling from one crisis to another leaving nothing but the corpses of its heroes in its wake.

Shaking herself from her thoughts, she set out to visit one of the smaller market areas that she had discovered earlier. Despite the fact that she found the attitude of the villagers to be unbecoming of citizens of a ninja village, they were rather pleasant to talk to and be around. If she were a civilian she knew that she would have liked this place. But she was not. She never would be.

Wandering around the village she had picked out plenty of ninjas patrolling over the rooftops and simply running from place to place, but none had approached her or even spared her a second glance, aside from a few men whose gaze lingered a bit longer than was necessary. That was certainly not a serious cause for concern. Still, being that she was alone in a potentially hostile environment she was careful to keep her guard up.

It surprised her to find two… no, three ninja camouflaged on rooftops overlooking the market. They were surprisingly well hidden, despite the fact that they were in broad daylight overlooking a busy street. These must have been the Hokage's ANBU. Only specially trained ninjas such as they would take on a reconnaissance mission in the middle of the village at this time of day. Thanks to her unique abilities they were no more hidden from her than the rest of the populace going about their business in the street, but still she needed to be careful. These three were a danger, even to her, especially if they raised an alarm.

She was sure that they had been in their positions before she had arrived, however, so either they were waiting for her and she was already compromised or they were observing someone else. The positioning of the three was also rather odd. The first two were much closer to the roadway than the third and a bit more conspicuous, as though their detection would not compromise them. That or they didn't think their target capable of detecting them. The third was well back from the road and much more effectively concealed. An over watch for the group? He was positioned in such a way that the first two would be hard pressed to detect him in any way, almost if he was hiding from them as well.

Deciding that being caught unaware would be irrefutably foolish she decided to check her surroundings to ensure her safety. Concentrating on her surroundings while pretending to examine a piece of fruit at a street vendor, she concluded that there were no other ANBU forces around for a few blocks in every direction. They must have been watching someone else.

A crash coupled with loud shouting brought her out of her musing as she turned away from the fruit stand. The sound seemed to be coming from a shop next to the fruit stand and, she quickly realized, directly across from the first two hidden ANBU. As the commotion approached the front of the shop she began to make out words being screamed by what sounded like an older man.

"What'd I tell you about coming in here you little cockroach! You're not allowed! Get the hell out. Out!"

She winced as a small body came hurtling out of the storefront and landed unceremoniously in the road, causing every head to turn to see the action. She was intrigued when the startled looks of passersby twisted into looks of glee, as though they had just stumbled on a free show.

The body, which she could now tell belonged to a blond haired boy decked out in worn and dirty shorts and a T-shirt, quickly tried to get up but was sent back to the dirt when a large, middle-aged man stormed out of the store and jabbed him in the stomach with the end of a broom handle.

"If I catch you in my store again, I'm gonna to break every damn finger you got! Damn monster!"

She watched as the child, who couldn't have been much older than three or four, once again scampered to his feet and, turning around as quickly as he could while clutching his abused stomach, ran directly into her leg. For a moment, as he tried to regain his balance and bearings, he looked up and his eyes met hers. Tears pooled in the deep blue, almost unnatural eyes that seemed to stare into her soul and beg for something incomprehensible. What she saw in them was pain. Pain and hurt the likes of which she had lived through for years. How had a child so young come to have such sad eyes?

Before she could respond he had brushed past her and run down the street as fast as his legs could carry him. She was brought back to her senses by the shifting of the ANBU on the rooftop. They hadn't attempted to move, but it seemed to her as though their eyes were following the boy as he ran up the road a bit to a small restaurant stand.

Were they there to observe the boy, a child not yet old enough to enter the ninja academy?

She was brought back from her musings by the dull murmur that began building around her from the market-goers. Words such as "menace," "monster," and "demon" were common among the ramblings, which almost to the last carried suggestions of varying degrees of physical violence to subject the child to. Suddenly, the situation became much clearer. In the past few years she had made a point to familiarize herself with the tailed beasts, their characteristics, and the methods of containing them. She even knew every jinchuuriki in the world by location. And name. All seven. After wracking her brain a name surfaced: Uzumaki Naruto, jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. The age of the child she had seen was about right. The Kyuubi had been defeated by the Fourth Hokage around four and a half years prior, which put her previous estimation of the child's age a bit on the low side. It was still entirely feasible though. She recalled that the boy was clan-less, of parentage unknown. An orphan. Just like her.

She scowled and turned her attention back to the small restaurant he had entered. Noticing that a good portion of the shopping crowd was wandering in that direction continuing their disturbed mutterings, she decided to take a closer look to confirm her suspicions. A few members of the infant mob had already entered the restaurant after the boy, which seemed to elicit more angry words from inside. Moments later those who had entered pushed back into the street followed by a fuming man dressed in a white chef's apron and hat waving a ladle a bit madly.

"You have no right to treat him like this!" The irate chef seemed to be turning his fury onto the assembling crowd as a whole. "The poor boy's done nothing to you in your damn lives. Now if you're not going to order some ramen then get out of here. You should all be ashamed of yourselves!"

Personally, she couldn't agree more.

The crowd, however, seemed intent on getting around the man in order to find the small boy and returned the chef's chastisement with its own screaming. Things seemed about to get physical when two raven-haired ninjas jumped down from a nearby roof into the middle of the crowd. They sported generally non-descript black clothing, the only defining feature of which was an interesting white and red symbol on the back. Uchiha. She thought for a moment about what she knew of the clan, which, when she thought about it, was more than everyone in the world bar about five or so. The Uchiha clan acted as the Konoha military police force, first and foremost. It was their job to keep the peace in the Konoha city proper among both civilians and ninjas. It seemed the standoff outside of the ramen shop was about to be resolved.

While one of the newly arrived officers began addressing the crowd and the chef, the other quickly scanned the crowd and rooftops for potential hazards. As the man's eyes paused on the two ANBU still concealed on the rooftop, she could see the distinct red tint of the Uchiha bloodline limit in action. The Uchiha in question turned and muttered something to his partner, most likely alerting him to the ANBU presence in the area. Together, the two policemen worked to disperse the crowd despite the many grumbles that came from the spiteful men and women. They then turned and had a short conversation with the chef, which elicited an angry frown from the man, this time directed at the policemen. A curt dismissal from the officers and the chef returned to his stand while the Uchiha took to the rooftops, resuming their patrol.

Continuing to watch from across the road - discreetly now that the crowd had dispersed - she could make out through the curtains that marked the entrance to the ramen stand that the boy had come back out from where he had been hiding behind the counter to speak briefly with the chef before slipping back out into the street to make his way to wherever his next destination was. After a moment, movement on the rooftop showed that the ANBU were making to follow the boy, continuing their surveillance.

The woman freely admitted to herself that the experience had disturbed her. Her own memories of her childhood as an orphan were forced back to the surface and she found herself subconsciously comparing their two lives. In some ways she was far luckier than him. She had two trustworthy and loyal friends that always helped keep her spirits up, even in the worst of times. The boy, on the other hand, was treated like a leper in a village that should be treating him as a savior, a hero. She fumed at that. Hadn't she just decided that this village, the most famous in the shinobi world, treated all of its heroes as sacrifices? If that is the case, she revised, then this sort of behavior towards him was to be expected. The true tragedy was that he was a sacrifice, not of his own free will, but of the will of Konoha. As much as she knew and respected the legend of the Fourth Hokage, the most feared ninja of the Third Great War, she couldn't help the feelings of contempt she held of him for sacrificing an innocent boy for these idiot people. As great as he was he should have known that they would spit on his memory at the first opportunity. Despicable.

The boy, at least, had food, clothing, and what she could only surmise was a trio of guardian angels who were to protect him from trouble, though their actions earlier, or lack thereof, caused her to wonder at what point they would have felt compelled to come to the boy's aid. Before or after those dogs got started on the poor kid? As a child she had always been plagued by uncertainty. Would she be able to eat today? Would she be able to find shelter for the night from the thrice-damned rain? Would she be killed by roving ninjas before the sun came up? Would she be killed after? She knew that she had only survived with body and mind intact thanks to the companionship of her friends. What would life have been like without them? She found that she didn't want to know.

Was it better to get by in life with no companions to share it with or to be constantly wondering with good friends by your side? She knew which she would choose.

The attitude shown the boy was nothing unique among those shown towards the vessels of the tailed beasts. She knew what sort of hardships they suffered, at least intellectually. Still, watching the boy – Naruto, she prompted herself - treated so callously by practically everyone tore a hole in her already battered heart. Like so many things involved in ninja life, it just wasn't right. Things had to change. She decided then and there that she had to speak to young Uzumaki Naruto at least once before she left the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

* * *

After leaving the small market district she had headed towards the nearest city limit, which happened to be on the way to the shinobi training grounds. There she sat down in the shade of a tree and relaxed as she listened to the wind rustling through the leaves above her. Everything was so incredibly peaceful here with nothing around except for the trees and small animals. And no damned rain. She used her time to clear her mind and prepare to enact her hastily drawn together plan. There wasn't really all that much to it actually, and it almost certainly guaranteed a confrontation with the local shinobi considering the three ANBU tails the boy dragged about. It really was a very stupid plan. She sighed resignedly to herself and reached into her shirtsleeve to retrieve a piece of paper hidden within. A drop of blood later and she was reading one of her old sensei's less popular books. She blinked stupidly as it occurred to her that the main character's name was also Naruto. Now that was interesting.

Nearly an hour later she heard the sounds of a child's raucous approach. Taking a good look at him without all of the commotion surrounding him, she felt that he appeared strangely familiar somehow. Most noticeable was his golden head of unruly hair. It was a truly unusual color to find in the shinobi nations. Looking closer, she noticed his face was rather remarkable as well. Along with the stunning blue eyes that she had noticed in the market, she picked out for the first time six thin birth marks on his face that resembled whiskers like those you'd find on a cat. Or a fox. Now she remembered that all jinchuuriki have at least one defining mark about their person that indicates their status as a container for a tailed beast. There could be no doubt now, this was the Kyuubi's prison.

Naruto was jumping around and giggling as he playfully chased a small group of large white butterflies towards her position. She remained seated, however, as she was unsure of how the boy would react to stumbling across someone in such a remote place. If what she'd seen was any indication, he may just pack up and run.

The boy finally noticed her when he was only around twenty feet from her resting place. Upon glimpsing her, he immediately froze and, throwing one last look at the dancing butterflies, turned on his heel and started away.

"You don't need to be afraid, you know. I don't bite." Naruto cautiously turned around to look back at her. "It's a beautiful day out today, don't you think? I'm not from around here so I don't often get to just lay around and enjoy myself in a place as beautiful as this." She gave him a small smile and motioned for him to come closer.

Naruto hesitated for a moment then took a few tentative steps towards the strange woman who simply continued smiling at him and patted the ground in front of her. She had said that she wasn't from Konoha, and from his experience that meant that she would be less likely to try to hit or yell at him. The old man at the ramen stand had once told him that he was from a different place too. He had walked up the spot on the soft ground that she had indicated and she still showed no signs of attacking or screaming, so he decided he could sit down and perhaps talk to her for a bit. "Hi." He grinned nervously at her. "Um, I've lived here all my life so I guess I'm used to the forest."

He spoke a bit guardedly for her taste so she decided it would be best to try to open him up a bit. "So, what brings you out here all by yourself? Were you meeting a friend here?

Naruto looked down at the mention of a friend. "No, I was just following some butterflies I saw in town. They flew out here so I came."

"They're very pretty aren't they?"

Naruto met her eyes again and a smile slid back onto his face. "Yeah! I've never seen butterflies like those around here before. I was hoping I could catch one to look at it closer, but they always got away."

Apparently it didn't take too much prodding to get the boy talking. That was good. "Sometimes seeing a thing for what it really is just makes it ordinary, though," she replied cryptically. She smiled at him again. "So, what's your name young man?"

"Uzumaki Naruto!" the boy replied proudly, all trace of his former caution gone. It just showed how attention starved he truly was that his attitude could change so rapidly in the presence of a little companionship.

"And how old are you Uzumaki Naruto?" she replied with a giggle that surprised even her. She couldn't remember the last time she'd done that.

"I'm four and a half." Here he held up four fingers to emphasize his point. At least they hadn't completely neglected his education.

"And what do you like to do, Naruto?"

"I like to eat ramen at Ichiraku Ramen and talk to the old man when he can spend time with me, but in a little while I'm going to join the ninja academy and train to be a great ninja!" She didn't know who the old man was but that was beside the point. The kid actually wanted to be a ninja.

Now it was time to ask the important questions. "Oh? And why do you want to be a ninja, Naruto?"

At this, the boy's face took on an oddly serious countenance that was a bit unnerving to see on a child so young. "All of the ninjas are respected by the villagers and the villagers do what they say. If I become a great ninja then all the people in Konoha will have to stop being so mean all the time. That's why I want to be the Hokage like the old man. Then everyone will have to look up to me!"

Now they had hit upon the real issues and the argument had taken on a decidedly dangerous leaning. If she intended to go any further, she couldn't afford to be overheard.

The boy turned his head at the sound of leaves rustling and a muffled thump from the forest just out of sight. "Did you hear that?"

"Hm, probably just some animals playing up in the trees." It was time to see what the boy really thought about his situation. "Naruto, you said that the people in the village are mean to you. Do you know why?" She was sure that he didn't. The Third had enacted a rather ineffective law after the Kyuubi attack that the boy's status was not to be discussed in front of those who didn't already know the truth. This, however, was hardly followed and as a result every ninja village in the shinobi world had a file on one Uzumaki Naruto. She supposed the Third, or old man as Naruto called him, did it for the sake of the boy, but in the end it was a token gesture at best. Surely Naruto had picked up on the villagers' rants over the years, though he wouldn't understand them just yet.

Naruto's eyes went back to the ground. "I don't know why, really. I always thought that maybe I did something really bad since that's what they all say, but I can't remember what it was. I would apologize to them if I could just remember what I did, but I can't. Once I get stronger though I can show them that I'm really sorry by protecting them and the village."

She cocked her head a bit to look at him. "Do you really think that will work?"

"I..." Naruto paused as his face regained a troubled expression. "I don't really know. I want to get strong to show them I'm not bad but I can't yet. I don't know how. I have to start at the academy before I can start learning to be a ninja."

"And once you get into the academy, what then? Do you think they'll teach you to be a ninja?" Naruto met her eyes with a confused expression on his face. "Do you think they'll _want_ to?"

The look of confusion slowly morphed to one of panic. "But the old man said I would! He said I could be a ninja when I was old enough! He wouldn't lie to me, he wouldn't."

His indignant response was met by a sad smile. "I don't think the Hokage was lying. I think he would let you be a ninja." The smile faded and a hint of steel was in her voice now. "But a ninja's life isn't a game. Without proper training a ninja is as good as dead. Do you think the instructors will train you to be a good ninja if they don't like you? The Hokage can't be there to help you all the time. It will be a long time before you can graduate and even longer before you're seen as a strong ninja. If you aren't taught properly then you probably won't even live that long. Weak ninjas are all killed early on. If you're not taught properly then you'll just die and never be able to achieve anything." The distressed look on the boy's face wrenched her heart, but she knew this was necessary.

"Then what can I do? I don't want to die." His voice fell and she detected a slight tremor to it. "I don't want to be alone anymore."

"You could always leave the village."

Naruto looked at her incredulously, as though the thought had never crossed his mind. "But then I'll never become a ninja. I'll never gain their respect."

"What are you talking about? This isn't the only place that trains ninjas you know. In another village people wouldn't hate you just for who you are. You'd have a fresh start to make a real name for yourself. You'd have a place where you wouldn't have to be alone. A place where you could be strong."

"But if I leave then I can never be the Hokage like the old man. I could never be the strongest." His statement was met with a small spell of light laughter.

"Naruto, the Hokage is the strongest ninja in the Fire Country. He's not necessarily the strongest ninja in the world. I happen to know ninjas much stronger than the Hokage." Naruto looked at her in no small amount of awe. "If… you were to come with me, I could introduce you. They could even help teach you if you promise to try your very hardest."

Naruto looked floored by the revelation, but the look slowly shifted to skepticism. "You really know ninjas stronger than the old man? How? Are you a ninja?"

She paused for a moment, then spoke. "I am."

"Would you help teach me then?"

"If you come with me, I will help you as much as I can."

Naruto took in her words and sat quietly for a moment. "If I leave, then I won't be able to see the old man again, or eat at Ichiraku anymore."

"No one is telling you that you can never come back some day. Ninja travel around all the time."

Naruto took this in and continued his pondering. She found it quite cute on his not yet five-year-old face. What caught her interest the most though was how thoroughly such a young child was thinking through his decision. Perhaps he truly understood the importance of this choice? "If I go with you I won't be able to be Hokage though, like my hero. He gave his live to protect the village, you know? He defeated an evil monster that no one else could. Would he be mad that someone like me just left the village like that?"

So the boy's hero was Namikaze himself. How ironic that the man who cursed the child on the day of his birth was the one who that same child looked up to more than any other. She had never met the man who was the Fourth Hokage, but in the shinobi world his legend preceded him. The fact that they had shared masters simply made him more of a topic of interest for her. She idly wondered what had possessed the man to seal a horrible monster into this child over the rest. How the charming and carefree yet incomparably deadly man had brought himself to curse the life of an innocent child, she didn't know. Everything about the man was incomprehensible. He'd been nicknamed in the Third War for something as un-sinister as the golden color of his hair despite being the most deadly ninja of the war. She found herself stuck on his hair for a moment for no reason she could understand. Turning her attention back to the boy who seemed to be waiting for an answer from her, it hit. Naruto had the same golden hair as Namikaze. The same unruly hair. _Naruto_. The name from her perverted teacher's book. It dawned on her slowly, because the idea was so completely ridiculous that it took a moment to sink in. Namikaze hadn't used an orphan to seal the Kyuubi. He'd used his son.

It was a silly thought, but she reached up her left sleeve with her right arm and removed another sheet of paper from its recesses. Naruto seemed to be following her actions with interest as she sliced her left thumb open along the end of her right sleeve and dripped a bit of blood on the oddly decorated sheet of paper. In a puff of smoke a small, battered black book appeared and she quickly began leafing through it, without even seeming to touch the pages, to stop on one she had been looking for. The action elicited a small gasp from the child but he remained silent, content with watching her work. Narrowing her eyes she scrutinized it carefully before looking back up to the small boy before her. Definitely the same golden locks. The same lightly tanned skin. The same cerulean eyes. Naruto was a miniature copy of Namikaze Minato, the greatest ninja ever to be produced by the most illustrious of the hidden villages. Now she knew that she had to take the boy with her. This was too much to pass up. The potential in this child was truly unmatched. He was the vessel of the strongest of the tailed beasts and the son of one of the most brilliant ninja minds of all time. Now just to convince him to come along. He was so close to choosing to leave of his own will that she just needed to give him a small nudge.

Thinking back to his last question, she finally responded. "I don't think that the Fourth Hokage would want anything more than for you to be happy." And this was true, now that she thought about it. It must have been the hardest thing the poor man had ever done to leave his newborn son an orphan on top of the burden he had to carry.

Naruto seemed to recover from his bewilderment at her spontaneous unsealing at the mention of the Fourth Hokage. "You know about the Fourth? Can you tell me about him?"

Now she was becoming anxious. They had spent a good deal of time talking and she didn't know how long before the boy or his minders would be missed. It was time for them to go. "I can answer any questions you have while we are going back to my home."

Naruto's enthusiasm died a little as a second wave of indecision hit him. "I'm still not sure this is a good plan… Are you sure we won't be in trouble?"

"No more trouble than the villagers who came after you earlier should be in." Naruto's eyes widened again asking a silent question. "Yes, I have been watching you for a while today Naruto. They have no right to do that to you, you know."

"They're not that bad."

Enough stalling, it was time to go. "Naruto. I know why they hate you, and believe me when I say that fools like those would not change their preconceptions so easily."

Naruto sat in shock for a moment. "You know why? Why? Tell me! Why do they hate me?"

"If you come with me I will explain everything to you in due time, but we must leave now if we are to go. I promise you that everything I have told you so far is true, but if they know you are leaving then they will try to stop you."

"Isn't it wrong to leave then?"

"No, Naruto, it isn't. The reason they will try to stop you is the same reason why the people here treat you badly. There is no law though that prevents you from moving out of the village. The people here would break their own laws to make you unhappy. Do you understand?"

Naruto seemed a bit overwhelmed, but recovered quickly. Nodding to himself he turned back to the woman he had only just met. "If you promise to help me become a great ninja, then I will go with you."

"I promise, Naruto."

"What's your name?"

"I will tell you when we reach our destination, Naruto. For now you can call me Blue."

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen sat in his high-backed office chair working through a stack of reports detailing the enrollments in the ninja academy for the new semester. While many dreaded the thought of being stuck with the administrative side of being Hokage, Sarutobi found it strangely comforting. Even though he was still considered one of the greatest ninjas alive, he had never lusted in the thrill of battle as many shinobi of note had. Sarutobi had taken the Hokage seat at the unprecedented age of nineteen with a promise to love and protect all of Konoha as though they were his own family, and it was this aspect of the job that he loved most. Never one to hesitate on the battlefield, he nevertheless found solace in the simple running of the village. Keeping all of his children safe and happy was his greatest aspiration. The simple fact that he was able to spend his time ensuring the village functioned smoothly in peacetime was often the only reward he received from the otherwise thankless job. He supposed that it was enough even as he frowned down at the list of new enrollment.

There were so many names there that he did not recognize – civilian names. While he was always happy to welcome new ninjas into the service of the village, it disturbed him that so many children would be thrust into the dangerous shinobi lifestyle without truly understanding what it would mean for them. While the old ninja clans instilled very early in their children the hardships and expectations of life in service of the village, the civilian children often came to the academy with nothing more than vague notions of what "the life" required of them and big dreams of earning glory on the field of battle. It troubled Sarutobi that it would ultimately be his duty to disillusion these children of their false expectations.

It was also worrisome that their parents had so readily sent their children to enter into ninja service. During the ninja wars, civilians generally stopped enrolling their children because academy students were often deployed at a much earlier age - sometimes not more than four years old - to be tested in a trial by fire. The children of shinobi clans were expected to fulfill this role, despite the high fatality rate and ensuing psychological damage witnessing death at such an age could cause.

And yet the civilians had begun enrolling their children so soon after the close of fighting. The Third Great Ninja War had only finally ended a little over a year before with the cease-fire signed between Konoha and Kumo. Even that had taken the sacrifice of Hyuuga Hizashi to cement.

The old Hokage sighed. Things would have been so much easier if Minato were still around. He would never have stood by and allowed Kumo's outrageous demands to be met. The ninjas of Kumo feared him more than they feared the Shinigami himself. Sarutobi chuckled sadly at that thought. Minato hadn't feared the Shinigami at all.

Most people didn't understand how tragic the Fourth's death had been. Granted, he had stopped the single greatest threat to Konoha's existence since its founding over sixty years ago. Despite the horrors of that day, casualties had been very low – deaths were in the dozens instead of the hundreds or thousands that would have been slain without Minato's heroism. Still, the greatest hope for Konoha's future had disappeared that day along with the monster Kyuubi.

Minato was undoubtedly the most talented Konoha ninja in its history. He was also the most talented ninja to be born into the world in two generations, so far a Sarutobi knew. Sarutobi remembered it as an unexpected surprise when Jiraiya came to him and asked if he could take the boy on as an apprentice after his team had passed the Chuunin Exams. At first the old man had been skeptical. The notes on Minato from the academy said that he had been easygoing and popular among the other students but had never shown any exceptional talent in the ninja arts. Apparently his commission as a genin had lit a fire within the boy.

In their first chuunin exam - held in Rain of all places - Jiraiya's squad had won the team battle tournament that took the place of the one-on-one third stage of the Konoha exam. All three members of the squad had been promoted to chuunin and had returned to Konoha to much aplomb, where Jiraiya, being who he was, had instantly opted out of the jounin instructor role that Sarutobi had forced on him. Team Jiraiya was reassigned and young Minato was taken on as an apprentice to the wayward Toad Hermit, who immediately spirited him away from the city for a period of three years to "experiment" and "research." The old man had a guess as to which of these took up the majority his perverted student's time.

He was even more surprised, however, to find that Minato had most assuredly leaned more towards the "experiment" department. After witnessing the most complex spatial manipulation ninjutsu he had ever laid eyes on, Sarutobi had assigned Minato to the northwestern border outpost under the command of the famous Hatake Sakumo to complete a tour of duty protecting the border between Fire and Grass countries.

And then the Third Great War broke out. Naturally Iwa was the first to attack, straight through Grass country and onto Hatake's outpost. Preliminary reports from the border included urgent calls for reinforcements and the distinct possibility of the position being overrun by the enemy. Only hours later another report confirmed that they were set upon by the Iwa Fourth Heavy Attack Division. Comprising mostly of powerful earth-element jounins this division was deployed to break any and all enemy entrenchments and otherwise crush the opposition. It was the spear-tip of the Tsuchikage's army. Hatake's defenders were barely holding on even with nearby patrols coming to reinforce his men against the onslaught. Knowing that this marked the start of a major offensive into Fire Country, Sarutobi called up his men with the intention of leading a force against the invading Iwa shinobi himself.

The next day as he was preparing to set out through the great gates with his forces allayed about him he received a short missive from the front by carrier hawk.

_Iwa advanced forces neutralized. Scouts report halt in hostile advances. Request further instruction._

_Hatake S._

Sarutobi was more alarmed by this missive than any before. What had caused the sudden turn in the tide of the battle? How were the Iwa forces so quickly neutralized? Had the note been faked somehow? His response was equally curt - _Hold position and await the Hokage's reinforcements_. He pushed his men to reach the border by the next morning and could only sigh in relief with what he had found.

One of Hatake's captains had met the Hokage a mile away from the fort and escorted his force in. The small encampment was in ruins, the fighting having spread out through the woods as Hatake's men abandoned the stationary position and moved to sting at the flanks of the enemy formation. Still, the Hokage was relieved to hear that Hatake's unconventional tactics had saved over half his men despite being completely outnumbered and pinned down. Sarutobi was right in putting him here in the field where his experience would be most useful.

That was only the first surprise though, and only a small one. As his men spread out to begin setting up positions, he surveyed the surrounding area and was drawn to the tallest hill in the area, just a mile north of the encampment, toward the Iwa lines. On the hill was a massive pyre of flame burning brightly in the early hours of the day. Turning a questioning look towards Hatake, he was quietly told that they were the bodies of the Iwa ninjas. All eighty of them.

Hatake had no more than fifty men of his own at the best of times. Thirty-one today.

Sarutobi found Minato sitting in front of the massive pyre, simply staring out at the Iwa formations in their encampments. The young man was rarely this subdued and the Hokage didn't want to disturb him quite yet, so he approached quietly from behind while taking in the scene with a sad expression. Another ninja war. Slowly he began steeling himself for what he knew would come. He'd lived through two great wars already and was ready, if reluctant, to fight a third.

"I completed a new jutsu yesterday, sensei." He had been sure that he wasn't heard as he approached, but Minato had clearly detected him somehow. Sarutobi gave a small smile to the man – no, boy. He wasn't even yet eighteen – at the usage of his pet name for him. Minato had always insisted that since Jiraiya wasn't dignified enough for the title that he might as well use it for the Hokage. "Will there really be another ninja war now?"

"I'm afraid so, Minato." Sarutobi had had a myriad of questions for the young man, but fought down the urge to interrogate him right then. The boy had needed reassurances, not to relive the veritable slaughter that he must have brought down upon these men and women.

"I never want to do that again," Minato had finally turned from his place on the ground to look the older ninja in the eyes, "but I will for the sake of Konoha. I don't want to see any more of our comrades die."

Sarutobi was silent for a moment before helping the blond to his feet. "Come Minato, we all have much work to do if we truly want to protect them."

But Sarutobi had been wrong. It wasn't clear if it had been the death pyre put proudly on display or the arrival of the Hokage's army, but later that very day the Iwa forces had begun a full withdrawal from Fire Country and all the way back to Iwa. Minato had been relieved of his tour of duty early to return to Konoha, where he was promoted to jounin and took on his own team of chuunin to lead in medium ranked missions for the village. Only now did Sarutobi appreciate that Hatake Sakumo's newly orphaned son had been placed with Minato. Without the kind-hearted man as a role model, the poor boy would have certainly not survived the mental torment intact. As it was, it was a very near thing.

Three years later, when Minato was twenty, Iwa had invaded once again and war had broken out in earnest. Minato's squad was sent to the front where Minato won fame and the second SS rank in the Bingo Book in history alongside the infamous Hanzou of Rain. And then he had become the Hokage at the tender age of twenty-two.

Sarutobi never regretted his decision. He was fifty-three when he stepped down – still in good form for a ninja of his talent – but the transition had been easy and the choice obvious. Minato was born to be the Hokage. In Minato, Sarutobi saw the ideals of his senseis and the future of Konoha – of the entire shinobi world. Though the war with Kumo was still dragging on, with Minato at the head of the village its outcome was obvious. No one would fight Minato. No one could fight Minato. And more than that, his genius never wavered and his penchant for playing with new techniques had not either. At twenty-two he was the most dangerous ninja in the world, and was getting stronger. Minato was the harbinger of a peaceful future for decades to come in the ninja world. He had the power, the will, and the support to accomplish a lasting peace and prosperity never before seen in the elemental nations.

The Kyuubi had put an end to all that. Now Sarutobi was back in his desk filling out what would eventually be the sanctioned death orders of so many young people. At times this job - this profession - disgusted him. He was nearing his sixtieth birthday and knew he could not do this for much longer. He needed to find another candidate for his position, and soon.

But there were not many options. His wayward students had cut ties with the village over the past decade and of the younger jounins none showed the kind of exceptional skill or spirit to lead the village into the future. So for now he would wait in the hope that another rose up to take the reigns. Another Minato.

But Sarutobi was not so foolish as to believe that would happen.

The old Hokage's reminiscing was broken by a disturbance outside the doors of his office. He looked up in mild concern as the doors were thrown open and an old man stormed in followed by a chuunin secretary who was frantically trying to waylay the irate man. The Hokage rose as he waved the chuunin off and moved to address Danzou.

"We have a problem Sarutobi." The man would be almost pitiable if he wasn't such an ass. His entire right side had been burned to charcoal in the Second War, losing the man an arm and an eye. He looked like half a mummy in Sarutobi's opinion.

It was an opinion he kept to himself.

"What's happened now Danzou?"

"One of my men has failed to report in from his reconnaissance, which should have been done nearly an hour ago now."

This was apparently supposed to mean something extraordinary to the Hokage. He let Danzou have his own little special operations group because it kept the man occupied and sometimes bore some fruit. As far as Sarutobi knew, however, most of Danzou's men operated outside of the village as spies and saboteurs. "You'll have to be more specific, Danzou. What was this man tasked with?"

The bandaged man seemed to take offense to the Hokage's calm demeanor. "He was assigned to follow the two fools you keep on the Uzumaki boy."

The Hokage raised his eyebrow at this. He had not been informed that Danzou had a man watching the boy nor had his own ANBU informed him of a tail. Both were troubling. "Perhaps we should discuss the permissible range of assignments your men can be tasked. I'll start by saying that spying on children within the city limits is not one of them."

"Don't give me that garbage Sarutobi. Your men are damn sloppy on that detail and you know it. Besides…"

He was interrupted by the appearance of a dog-masked ninja with striking white hair in the office beside the Hokage's desk. The intruding ninja rose from his kneeling position and quickly began speaking. "Lord Hokage, two of our operatives were found dead in the forest south of training area twelve, along with one other masked ninja." The ANBU spared a look towards Danzou at the mention of the third ninja in the forest.

Danzou cursed. The Hokage, on the other hand, took it upon himself to ask the pertinent questions. "These were the two men assigned to follow Uzumaki Naruto, yes?"

The masked man gave a nod. "Yes, Lord Hokage."

"Where is the boy now?" Danzou seemed disinclined to be left out of the conversation.

"He was not found anywhere near the deceased. Our operatives are scouring the outlying area for any signs of the attackers or the boy."

Danzou cursed again. "Damn it Sarutobi, I told you we needed to take more steps towards keeping him safe! Towards training him! He's Namikaze's greatest weapon and you squander his potential in the hopes that he'll have something resembling a childhood? We both knew it was a fool's errand."

"Naruto is not a weapon, Danzou, nor do I intend to let him be seen or used as one."

"He's all that's left of the Fourth, all that he left for Konoha's future," Danzou hissed. "What you intend is completely irrelevant now, Sarutobi. The boy is gone." The bandaged man shook his head then snapped it up towards the Hokage's soldier. "ANBU! How were our men killed?"

"Their throats were slit. All three. No signs of a struggle or that they had any forewarning."

"Wonderful, Sarutobi. Ninjas that can do that to experienced ANBU will have the boy halfway to the border by now. It's obvious that this was put together by one of the other villages. Now they have our jinchuuriki, the Fourth's son!"

At this Sarutobi frowned and Danzou tensed before turning to the ANBU still waiting for orders. "I already knew that, sir. My sensei's son and all."

Danzou seemed to relax a bit before regaining an angry scowl. "I'll have my men keep their ears to the ground, Sarutobi, but I hope you appreciate the fact that this is the mother of all fuck-ups. We need that brat here if we want to compete with the other countries in years to come!"

Sarutobi looked thoughtful for the moment, then clasped his hands behind his back before turning to gaze out of the wall-to-wall window in his office overlooking Konoha. The setting sun painted the entire sky in a wash of stunning orange that extended down to the streets and buildings, giving the whole city the appearance of being licked by flames. "Danzou. What, in your opinion, is the best case scenario in this situation?"

"Obviously that the boy is found and returned to us. Aside from that, the best scenario is that he is killed and the Kyuubi destroyed."

"And the worst?"

"That he was taken by our enemies and is turned against us."

Sarutobi nodded, still facing the cityscape. "Kakashi, form patrols and perform a search pattern over the thirty miles surrounding Konoha. If he's already beyond that distance then the chances of finding him aren't worth contemplating. Instruct the military police to look within the city limits for Naruto."

The masked ANBU nodded and departed in a cloud of smoke. Danzou turned to leave in a huff but stopped as Sarutobi spoke once again.

"It was said that only Uchiha Madara had the power to control the great Fox Kyuubi," he turned and looked Danzou in his one good eye, "but anyone can control a small, lonely boy. I only pray that Konoha can survive this mistake of mine."

Danzou shook his head and left the office quietly. The old Hokage stayed standing and absently reached into his desk drawer to retrieve his pipe. He stood there for an hour and watched the sunset, the paperwork completely forgotten.


	2. Carry on Wayward Son

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Posted:** 8/16/08

**A/N: **I hope you all enjoyed my first chapter. Lots of background and "thinking," I know. I think it's important though, considering how out of character it is that a dangerous ninja would suddenly drop everything to take on a young child. Remember that Blue is nearly twelve years younger than she is when we are introduced to her in canon, and is not quite so jaded and uncaring at this point. This will be an important point with Pain as well.

A few things I want to bring up about the story in general, without giving everything away. First off, the "mysterious identity" seemed fun to me and served to grab some attention from all of you. I hope. It will be resolved by the end of this chapter though, so if it bothered you, don't fret. Also, if you were up to date with the manga like I suggested, the identity should have been glaringly obvious. I just tried to write it without blatantly giving anything away.

I hope you all liked my take on the whole "everyone hates Naruto" situation. I get tired of reading stories that have Naruto being beaten to the edge of death on a near constant basis. That's just not supported by canon at all and, in my opinion, is a poor plot device to force Naruto to "grow up." In my story, Sarutobi and the elders – who also know about Naruto's lineage, they were in on the Uchiha massacre after all – do go out of their way to make sure that Naruto is protected from hostile influences. Obviously there are different ways to go about it, and I think that canon shows us that Naruto's childhood was fairly miserable and unfulfilling. The kid is a natural born ninja genius but graduates at age twelve as the dead last of his class. Then just a few months later he's the strongest genin in the allied nations. Obviously someone dropped the ball with Naruto, and I'm pointing the finger at Sarutobi, despite his good intentions. This will not be a Vengeful!Naruto fic. I think I got him out of Konoha early enough that any animosity he may have will be mostly forgotten by the time he returns.

An important plot point: I didn't make it particularly clear in the first chapter, but right now Pain has not conquered Rain country yet. The first portion of this story will deal with Naruto's childhood, Pain's ascent to power, and the early years of Akatsuki. If you thought this would be a 'skip forward in time so Naruto can show off his amazing powers' story, you were mistaken.

Last thing. I realize that simply asking for reviews isn't really fair to the readers. It's like one of those "make up your own topic" essays that used to drive me nuts since half the time it took to write was spent figuring out a topic. So here's what I especially want from all of you, besides the comments/criticisms on the style and whatnot:

I'd like everyone to come up with a few things you thought I didn't explain well, didn't explain at all that warrant explanations, or simply things you'd like to read about in the future. Since this is going to be my last big author's note, instead of trying to answer your pertinent questions at the beginning or end of the chapter, I'll try my level best to incorporate the information into the chapters themselves.

Examples of good questions:

What happened to Yahiko? Don't worry, I already plan on explaining this, but you get the idea.

Doesn't Akatsuki want to kill Naruto? What's up with that? This will also be addressed in due time.

Example of bad question:

If X fought Y, who would win? If it isn't written in the story as part of the plot it's not worth commenting on. Most of the characters will adhere to their canon power levels.

Now that that's cleared up, let's get on with Chapter 2.

**Chapter Title:** _Carry on Wayward Son _by Kansas.

* * *

Naruto was scared. He had just chosen to leave the only home he had never known with a perfect stranger for destinations unknown, all for the sake of becoming a strong ninja. He didn't know the first thing about being a ninja.

Aside from the fact that they could apparently jump through the treetops. Really, really fast.

Currently he was holding onto Blue's back for dear life as they screamed through the lush forests that surrounded Konoha. This was further complicated by the fact that he was now wearing her bulky backpack - which by itself was nearly as large as he was. Despite the sheer terror he was experiencing - both due to the uncertainty he felt concerning his future and his precarious position piggy-backing on a ninja who could move faster than he ever thought possible - Naruto was enjoying every moment of his ordeal. Something about it got his blood pumping in such a way that his whole body seemed to be singing to him. Naruto was used to being afraid - especially when the villagers got particularly rowdy – but this was different from the type of fear he was used to experiencing.

It was exhilarating.

Despite the lack of control and relative helplessness he felt, he couldn't stop himself from smiling widely.

He decided right then and there that being able to run like this - free from any obligation and faster than the wind - was worth almost any hardship that becoming a ninja might present him with.

The trip seemed to last hours and yet conclude in seconds. In reality it had taken somewhere in between - around twenty minutes. Blue landed gracefully on the shaded forest floor and bent down to let Naruto slide off. His arms and legs were surprisingly stiff and sore – he hadn't realized how tightly he had been holding onto his older comrade. After stumbling for a minute, Naruto smiled up at the woman. "That was really cool! I'm gonna learn to do that too, right?"

Blue looked around for a moment, checking for threats, before looking at Naruto and returning his smile with a small one of her own. "You'll be learning to do many things, Naruto. Tree jumping is actually a fairly basic skill, but your speed depends on how hard you're willing to train."

"I'm gonna train harder than anyone! Then I'll be the very fastest!"

"I hope you really mean that, Naruto. Like I said earlier, being a ninja isn't a game. But, if you work as hard as you say then you may very well be the fastest of all." Blue gestured for Naruto to take off the pack and set it down. Pulling it open, she removed a small cosmetic case and turned to examine Naruto's face.

"What are you doing?"

"Those markings on your cheeks are too easily recognizable. I'm going to cover them up so that you won't be identified by the patrols."

Naruto scrunched up his face. "You mean I have to wear make-up? Gross! Makeup is for girls."

"Don't be silly Naruto. All good ninjas - men and women - have to learn to disguise themselves for when they go on covert missions. Did you think that a ninja always runs into battle yelling with their headband on for all to see? Even during a ninja battle deception is one of the most important tools a true shinobi can have."

Naruto seemed to think about it for a moment before nodding slightly. "I guess I'll wear the makeup, but I still don't like it."

Blue laughed lightly at this as she leaned down to match the slightly tanned color of Naruto's skin to the foundation in her case. "Even if you could do a Transformation this is still the best way fool those looking for you. Experienced ninja can sense when someone is running that much chakra throughout their body. If we use makeup then only a close inspection will let others know you're hiding who you are. Now hold still for a moment."

Naruto grimaced and closed his eyes as the cream was lightly spread over his cheeks. Blue admired her work and allowed Naruto to see his reflection in the compact mirror. He was surprised how normal he looked without his whisker markings. He didn't like it. It was boring. It wasn't him.

While Blue turned around to put the makeup case away, Naruto reached up to feel the substance on his cheeks but was halted just inches away by a contrite "don't touch" from Blue. He wondered how she had known what he was going to do without even turning around.

"Hey Blue, what's chakra?"

She looked up with a slight frown on her face. She really should have expected this, but the kid had been so quiet as they made their escape from Konoha. Once again he had shown an unusual knack for understanding the gravity of the situation at the time. Now that they were out of immediate danger, though, the kunoichi seemed to be fair game for the inquisitive mind of the boy.

"Well, chakra is an energy that ninjas use to perform special ninja techniques, among other things. Chakra is what lets ninjas do things like tree jumping, for instance." Naruto looked at her in wonder and an idea suddenly hit her. She smiled as she brought her hands in front of her body in a ram seal. "It also lets ninjas do things like this."

From the backpack on the ground countless sheets of blank paper flew and began surrounding Naruto, causing no small amount of panic. They quickly began adhering to his body and garments and after just a moment, seemed to disappear. Stunned, Naruto fell backwards and landed on his rear as he looked at Blue and then at himself. Where previously Naruto had worn a dirty white T-shirt with a large orange spiral on the front, he now wore a dark blue long-sleeved ordeal. His dark shorts were now a lighter khaki color that went along with Blue's own. Strangest of all, a dark blue bandanna now adorned Naruto's head, covering his golden-blond hair in its entirety.

Naruto reached up to feel the top of his head and his new clothes in disbelief. "You scared me Blue! But that was so cool! They don't feel like paper at all. How'd you do that?"

"I just used a little bit of chakra to shape the paper and mold it to your own clothes. The shirt and pants you had on are still there, I just covered them up with clothes of my own design. Now nobody should be able to recognize you even if we're stumbled upon by ninjas." Blue held out a hand and helped Naruto to his feet, then gestured back behind the boy. "Now that we're properly disguised we need to start walking that way towards the road."

"Why don't we just do the tree jumping again? That was really fun!"

"Because, Naruto, if we keep running then the ANBU sent to hunt us down will be able to find a path and try to track us. By simply stopping this close to the village and joining the normal traffic on the roadway they'll likely overshoot us and not bother checking the regular travelers." Her explanation was met by a slow nod. "The people in the village expect you to be taken by shinobi from other countries, and they're right. But," and here she gave Naruto a conspiratorial wink, as though their flight from the village was nothing more than a joke on the ninjas there, "we're going to pretend to be regular people just walking along to the next town. If we do it right, they won't suspect that we're really ninjas in disguise."

Naruto's eyes lit up as the road came into view through the trees. "You mean I'm a ninja now too?"

Blue surveyed the road before signaling for them to turn to the right, heading west. "That's right. You're on a secret mission now aren't you? We have to evade the Konoha hunter patrols."

Naruto gulped at the thought that they were being hunted by trained ninjas, but then realized that Blue didn't seem very scared at all. He schooled his shocked expression and gave himself a small nod. If he was going to be a real ninja like Blue he couldn't afford to be scared even if other ninjas were after him. He wanted to be the best, after all.

"What do I have to do?"

"Well, we have to be careful about what we say when other people are around. We can't let anyone know that we're ninja since we're pretending that we're not. If we pass anyone on the road, just ask questions that don't have to do with being a ninja, alright? If any hunter ninjas come close I'll let you know. The important thing is to act normally around anyone we meet." Blue looked Naruto over again. "We'll have to come up with a cover story in case we run into anyone." She made a show of pondering the situation for a moment, much to Naruto's amusement. "Alright, got it. You're my little brother now, Naruto, and we're going to River Country to visit some friends of our older brother's, ok? If we do meet anyone, just let me do most of the talking. Most people don't expect a four year old to be as smart and talkative as you are." Blue finished with another smile and a nod from Naruto.

They walked in silence for a few minutes until it was broken by a whisper from Naruto. "Can we talk about ninjas right now?" His eyes were darting around comically as if to sense any enemies ready to jump out from the trees and bushes along the roadside.

"We can talk about them all you want when it's just the two of us, like now. What do you want to know?"

"Well, you said that ninjas use chakra earlier, but I don't know what it is really. Do I have chakra?"

Once again, Blue was surprised by the boy's inquisitive mind. He seemed to be asking pertinent questions. While Blue didn't have experience to speak of with children, she found Naruto's focused mind to be a bit of a relief. She didn't know what she would have done if the boy had been as scatterbrained as she had feared. It would have been… awkward, once they reached home.

"Everyone has chakra Naruto. Even plants and animals have it, to a degree. You can think of it as your life's energy. It flows through your body and helps keep you going. Without chakra, you'd die. Most people without ninja training can't feel or use their chakra. That's why one of the first things you're going to learn is how to draw your chakra out so that it can be used for ninja techniques."

Naruto nodded and then shifted back to silence for a minute. After finishing his analysis of Blue's description, he focused on her again. "If all things need their chakra to live, than wouldn't using it for ninja moves make a person die?"

Blue nodded happily to herself. He was very sharp, as she hoped he'd be. "Very good, Naruto. You're absolutely right. If a person used up all of their chakra they would die. That's why ninjas train constantly to learn their limits and to increase their supply of chakra. A person can live without their chakra supply being full, but as they use more and more they will become tired and sluggish until so much is gone that they pass out. If even more is used past that point they can die."

"That's what you meant about good training being important, right?" Blue looked at her companion with a questioning expression. "If I got bad teachers in Konoha, I might get hurt by other ninjas or I might even hurt myself."

Blue looked back at the road ahead and nodded. "That's very true."

"I'm glad you're going to be the one to teach me Blue." Naruto was looking at her meaningfully. "I'm glad you feel like answering my questions. In Konoha no one would talk about the things I wanted to know or they'd just yell at me or try to hit me. I'm glad that's over with, even if being a ninja with you is as dangerous as I think it might be."

"It's good that you trust me Naruto, but be careful who you give your trust to. Once you do you can't take it back, and sometimes when you are betrayed it never stops hurting. Being a ninja means being wise. Don't let anyone get close enough to hurt you unless you are sure that they trust you too."

"Does that mean you don't trust me, Blue?"

"I may be starting to, but it will take a long time before I see you as someone I can fully depend on." Naruto looked a bit saddened by this. "Still, when I said you were my little brother I meant it Naruto, not just for today. I may be your sensei from time to time, but if you prove that I can trust you then you'll be part of my family forever."

"Do you have a big family?"

"No, Naruto. It's very small."

"Then I'll try my best to earn your trust so I can be part of it too."

* * *

That night Blue found herself staring into the dying embers of the small campfire outside of her portable, civilian grade, two-person pup tent. The few hours they had left in the day before they pitched camp were spent playing a game Blue had created at the prompting of Naruto. He had wanted to do something that would help in his training as a ninja, so she had called back a few of her origami creations from their search patrols around the two in order to give Naruto targets to look for. Blue tested the boy's eyesight and hearing by setting small white birds in trees and seeing how long it took them to be located. They would occasionally rustle the leaves in order to draw attention to the sides or behind the traveling duo. To say she was impressed would be an understatement. The boy seemed to have a gift for sensing and pointing out her paper artwork. They continued in this manner until the sun began falling below the treetops and they found a small clearing within sight of the road to make a small camp.

Blue had detected a hunter squad pass them by while they were gathering wood for the fire, but the two of them were so obviously civilians that the hunters did not even bother to stop in their urgency. Blue loved the lack of creative thinking shown by most ninjas - both in tactics and in strategy. Most believed that flashy ninjutsu and rigid adherence to orders were all that mattered in their profession. They thought of themselves as soldiers, not as elegant tools used to sow discord and fear amongst their enemies. It was the one trait that more than anything else separated the trash from the great ninjas of the world.

Once the dinner of canned camping rations was eaten the two had sat down at the fire quietly for a time. After the success of the afternoon's "game," Blue decided to test out more of Naruto's basic skills. This time, though, the subject was reading. The boy had to be able to train on his own if no one was available to assist him, and that meant reading scrolls.

In light of this, Naruto and Blue found themselves reading the Bingo Book for another two hours before Naruto turned in for sleep. They had gotten through nearly all of the B-ranked Iwa ninjas listed in the outdated Rain edition that Blue kept on her person before the boy had started yawning uncontrollably. Still, it hadn't been until she suggested he go lay in the tent that he had gotten up and wandered inside. She certainly didn't have any complaints about his dedication after that. Naruto wasn't bad at hiragana or katakana by any stretch - but being so young, he hardly knew any of the kanji at all. Blue made a mental note to work on that with him in the future – preferably as soon as possible.

She realized that recounting the day's events was putting her mind off track.

Quickly she reviewed her choices today. In all honesty she could have easily gotten them to the border without any danger of being caught, but she wasn't in a rush and needed to think for a bit.

Taking Naruto - a jinchuuriki - from Konoha was definitely not a good idea on the surface. They would want him back, and badly. The boy would have to be hidden away for a time – most likely many years. Considering her current lifestyle, however, this wasn't as big of a problem as it first seemed. Blue was used to hiding from unwanted attention and prying eyes.

More pressing was her own situation in regards to training Naruto. She had obligations back home and taking an apprentice was not exactly feasible at the moment. She knew she needed help and support from the only person who she really trusted.

This was the second problem. Pain wouldn't have any inclination to take an apprentice. He was too caught up in their war against Hanzou and his dealings with Madara and Akatsuki. Simply keeping their resistance movement alive required most of Pain's attention - especially when she was out of the country. He hardly had the disposition to put up with a young boy just starting to train towards being a ninja. Then there was the fact that Akatsuki's goal – _tentative_ goal, she reminded herself – was the capture and ultimate killing of all of the world's jinchuurikis in order to harness the power of the bijuus. Pain was busy with recruitment and research for the organization on top of trying to topple a government run by the most feared shinobi in the world. She had to spin this just right if she was to get Pain on her side.

The only way that Naruto would be allowed to train and flourish with them was if he could prove to be a greater asset than the Kyuubi within him. Being the son of Namikaze certainly helped in that regard, but was it enough? Naruto would need to show incredible talent and dedication to both his own training and their cause in order to keep his life. It was a sad reality, but one that Blue accepted. The boy had grown on her in the half day she had spent with him, but she had given nearly twenty years of her life and her best friend to the war against Hanzou. If forced to make a choice, she sadly acknowledged that Naruto could be sacrificed easily for their ambition to succeed.

Even if half the world had to burn, their ambition would succeed.

She'd already made her choice concerning the boy's future, though. Even if he had to die further down the road, she vowed to make his life a bit more meaningful than it had been.

And the boy might be able to save his own life along the way.

Wasn't that the truth of it, though? Only the boy could save himself from his fate as a jinchuuriki. From what she had seen and heard today, he might just pull it off.

That thought was worth a smile. She had been doing that a lot today. Perhaps the boy could help make her life a bit brighter, even as she made his so. She withheld any illusions she might have about his effect on Pain. There was wishful thinking, and then there were pipe dreams. Still, the man deserved more than he got. It hurt her to see him driving himself stir-crazy trying to accomplish more than one man could ever expect to. But that's just how he was. Just how _Pain_ was.

She missed her old friend.

With that melancholy thought, Blue checked her chakra to see if anything sinister was nearby and retired to the small tent as well. She needed sleep if they were to make it out of Fire Country tomorrow comfortably.

Just one more stop between here and home. She hoped that Naruto would overcome his first trial as a shinobi. If he didn't, she honestly didn't know what his fate would be once they reached Rain Country.

* * *

Blue awoke the next morning as the sun crested the horizon. Quickly checking their surroundings, she found that they were very much alone in the forest. The road was clear as well – the merchants were still yet to rouse themselves and continue on their journeys. She leaned over to wake Naruto, who was curled up on the opposite side of the small tent. He woke up at her light prodding and blinked his eyes blearily, trying to take in the unfamiliar surroundings. As his eyes found hers, he smiled and sat up.

"Morning Blue."

"Good morning, Naruto. Did you sleep well?"

"Okay, I guess."

"Why don't you head outside so that I can take down the tent?"

Naruto nodded and crawled through the flap at the foot of the tent, followed quietly by Blue. He found a seat on the ground and became lost in the colors of the early morning and the songs of the birds in the trees. What seemed like a moment later, the tent was packed, a quick breakfast was eaten, and the two were ready to go.

"Are we walking again today, Blue?"

"No, we're jumping. We have to be in River Country tonight for some business."

Naruto was silent for a moment. "Ninja business?"

"That's right. After that we'll be heading back to my home." At this, Blue bent down and helped Naruto put the oversized pack on his back and tighten the straps so that it wasn't lost along the way.

"Where do you live, Blue?"

She hoisted the child onto her back and turned her head slightly to look at him over her shoulder. "It's best if I don't tell you until we arrive. We're going to meet some more people and it's important that they not know where we're from. Now hold on tight, but not too tight. We don't want you to get sore too quickly. We'll be jumping for most of the day."

"Okay."

And with that they were flying through the forests of Fire Country once again. The sense of terror that Naruto had experienced the day before had lessened but the thrill was still there. He had to work to keep himself from laughing as they whipped through the branches at inhuman speeds.

Naruto had always wanted to be a ninja because of what he thought the rewards would be. The status and the respect had always appealed to him, having grown up with none of either. Now, Naruto decided, those things weren't nearly as important as he thought they were. He knew now that he could never be anything but a ninja - if only to be able to do this whenever he wanted. He wanted that power - not to lord over others - but to enjoy for himself. Being a ninja wasn't a means to an end, but an end in and of itself. It was a truly liberating feeling.

As the day wore on they continued away from Konoha and towards the border with River Country, taking occasional stops to let Naruto down so that he could stretch his limbs a bit. They stopped for a lunch of preserved food, again, and made good headway for most of the day.

A few hours after lunch they met with their first real obstacle of the journey. Blue broke from their relatively straight course and began in an awkward zigzag, sometimes backtracking and crossing their earlier path. Most unnerving to Naruto, though, was what sounded like an army on his heals - breaking branches and chipping bark - despite being just out of Naruto's sight.

"What's going on?"

"Hunters picked up our trail. I'm losing them now by making false paths. Don't worry, that sound is my doing."

Naruto relaxed a bit at this, not realizing how tense his body had been as it clung to hers. He tensed up once again, however, as he picked up a slight "damn" from the woman before him.

She spoke quickly and quietly, but Naruto hung on every word. "We've run into another patrol, they're going to close on us. Don't panic."

But Naruto nearly did panic as they dove from nearly forty feet in the air towards the forest floor below. Blue swung him off of her back and flung them both into the belly of a hollowed out old tree. She held her finger in front of her lips, signaling quiet and then clasped her hands in front of her as she had done the day before. From beneath her long-sleeved shirt and pants, a flurry of paper erupted and moved to cover the opening to their hiding place, effectively blocking out all light.

Naruto was frightened when he felt a hand grasp his own, but quickly relaxed as he realized it was only Blue. The light squeeze he felt there kept the small part of him that hated the dark from coming to the surface. They stood there for minutes that stretched out for what seemed like forever. Then came voices from just outside their hidden nook.

"Anything?" Naruto felt another reassuring squeeze on his hand.

"Tracks are everywhere, but we haven't caught sight of them yet."

"Good ones then. How many?"

"Hard to say, could be as many as five or six, but they'd all have to be real good to not get spotted at all. Most likely only two or three that split up and started making false trails."

"They're still around here somewhere, must have taken cover when they sensed you two coming east. Can either of you sense anything?"

"No, nothing, but they must be right around here…"

"Bijuu's barbeque?"

"But what about the kid? If these are the guys that nabbed him…"

"The brat's long gone. These are probably just some idiots trying an infiltration. The missive said that outside of a thirty mile perimeter the kid was a lost cause. We're on border patrol. The chances of him coming through here of all places is zero. Where'd they be taking him? River country doesn't have any ninja and Suna's an ally. I hear they're having enough trouble with their own little monster anyways."

"He's right, let's just light up and get this over with."

Naruto was trying to follow their conversation but much of it was confusing. He did, however, get the gist that they were about to be in big trouble. Blue's quick squeeze followed by a withdrawal of her hand only helped to increase his worry. Hot breath on his ear almost made him jump, but he quickly regained his composure.

"Drop the pack and get on my back again. We're leaving it behind. Hold on tight and be quiet." The words were barely a whisper and yet Naruto picked them up and quickly complied.

They stood there for a few minutes in the darkness, their breathing and the growing sounds of crackling flames the only things to focus on. After a time Naruto began to smell the smoke outside faintly even through the paper shield that protected them.

"Don't panic." And Naruto almost did, as what he knew to be a piece of paper flew over his mouth and nose and glued itself there. After only a moment though the paper took on the feel of cloth and Naruto found that he could breathe through it quite easily. "Hold on tightly."

Naruto only had an instant to firm up his grip before he was launched forward on Blue's back straight through the paper shield - which seemed to explode outwards as they passed through it. Naruto was stunned by the sudden blast of boiling air that assaulted his face, hands, and feet where they were exposed to the heat. They had stepped out into a raging inferno. Everything in their sight was alight with red-orange flames that seemed to dance up the trunks of the surrounding trees. If it hadn't been so horrifying, Naruto would have thought it was beautiful.

The paper shield that had protected them had broken up into its component sheets and flew before them, ripping through the flames and blowing them aside before they sped past. Just moments later they had broken through the firestorm and emerged into healthy forest - the paper storm still leading the way.

Naruto gasped as a masked man flew at them through the canopy with a dangerous looking sword in hand. Blue didn't slow down though - she simply glanced at him and the paper storm fluttered to intercept. It was over so quickly that Naruto wasn't even sure what he had seen as they sped by. Just white and red and the rustling of paper.

They were going faster now than they ever had before and Naruto's heart was beating at a speed he was sure he had never felt, even after all of the encounters with the villagers. All he could do was hold on for dear life and trust that Blue knew what she was doing. Considering what had just occurred, Naruto was fairly sure she did.

Two hours later they were across the border and into River Country.

* * *

Naruto looked around curiously as he scurried into town alongside Blue, his short legs struggling to keep up with her purposeful strides. The town was similar in style to Konoha – small shops lined the road into the city and people could be seen walking up and down the lanes finishing their late afternoon shopping. Restaurants were beginning to open to accommodate early diners as patrons began to drift in from the streets to grab a quick bite to eat. The sun was just settling below the treetops, casting long shadows throughout the bustling thoroughfare.

Naruto was fascinated by the simple fact that people seemed to ignore him. He received no malicious glances, growls, or impolite comments. No threats were directed his way. Instead he was treated just as other children he had observed in Konoha were treated – he was ignored. And he loved it. There was no need to ponder every action, every glance. He was simply treated as another small child – something beyond the consideration of self-important adults.

"Where are we Blue?" She glanced down and smiled at him again. He was beginning to truly enjoy her small bouts of familiarity. It was something he never knew before.

"We're in the capital of River Country." She looked down at him again and noticed the slight frown on his face. "It's the largest city in the country, where the daimyo holds his court."

Naruto nodded to indicate his understanding. "Is this where you live?"

"No. We'll be leaving after we finish our business in River Country. We have a job to do first here though."

Naruto glanced around at the patrons making their way up and down the road. "Is it a _real _job?"

Blue looked at him again, surprised that he could keep his wits about him after their conversation even despite his young age. "That's right. It's fairly important and must be completed before we head home."

"Are we going right now?"

"No. We'll have to wait a bit. How about a quick bite to eat first?" Naruto looked around to confirm that he wasn't the center of attention before nodding eagerly.

"What do you like to eat, Naruto?"

"Um, mostly I eat ramen at Ichiraku's or whatever they're serving at the orphanage." Naruto frowned. "That's usually icky though."

Blue gave a slight nod. "Why don't we give yakiniku a try then?" Seeing Naruto's confused look she elaborated. "That's barbequed meat. You get to cook your own. It'll be fun, you'll see."

As it turned out Naruto did enjoy being able to cook his own food, though Blue had to make sure his pieces of meat were cooked long enough. Naruto tended to be rather impatient.

After a meal full of explanations on how to cook meat properly, which eventually extended into the methods of how to catch and prepare animals in the field without becoming ill, Blue paid for the food and led Naruto back onto the now darkened and quiet roadway.

She looked at the fading light in the sky and seemed to nod to herself almost imperceptibly.

"Alright, it's time."

"Time for our mission?"

"That's right Naruto. Now listen carefully. I need you to be quiet no matter what anyone says to you or asks you. I'll be with you the whole time, so just let me do the talking."

Naruto nodded, already intent on maintaining his silence for the sake of the mission.

Blue looked around to take in the now fairly empty street. Most of the shops were closed and though the restaurants were open and full, the traffic of the afternoon had subsided substantially. Seeing that no one was paying them much attention, she pulled Naruto into a deserted alleyway without protest.

She brought her hands together in a few shapes that Naruto found rather odd but had seen ninjas in Konoha make before. Her calf-length pants peeled away to be replaced with a form-fitting skirt that only reached mid-thigh while her shirt morphed into a rather low-cut sleeveless blouse which left a good deal of cleavage exposed. Naruto barely had time to consider the changes to his companion's outfit before his too began to change. Instead of wearing baggy shorts and a loose shirt he found himself in small shorts and a T-shirt that he found entirely too tight. Still, he resolved to keep his silence as Blue was counting on him to complete their first ninja mission together.

Blue bent down and placed her hands on Naruto's shoulders. "Remember Naruto, no matter what happens I need you to be quiet. Don't ever be afraid. I'll be with you the whole time and will protect you with my life, okay?"

Naruto nodded in response and fidgeted slightly in his tight clothing.

"Good. Tonight I'm going to teach you what being a shinobi is all about, Naruto." She squeezed his shoulders in what she thought was a reassuring manner even as she grimaced. "Remember that not everything a ninja does is great or noble."

With that she prodded a slightly confused Naruto out of the alley and began to lead him through the city, twisting and turning in an effort to reach some unknown location. After traveling for what seemed like forever in his uncomfortable clothing, Naruto noticed that the city began to look more and more grimy and dilapidated. Konoha didn't really have any slums since any residents with less than legal inclinations were quickly apprehended and dealt with by the patrolling ninja. Those that couldn't afford to live cleanly in the city generally packed up and left before they were forced to resort to the more seedy occupations.

Naruto was a bit discomforted by his surroundings but hung on to Blue's promise that she would protect him from any harm. Finally they came to a run down, multi-story structure that was just one of many that seemed to tower over the lonely lane that ran before it. Following closely behind Blue, Naruto approached a man standing by a beaten door leading into the building. The man was dressed in clothing that would have once been considered fancy attire but now was too dirty and frayed to be worn out in broad daylight without drawing attention. As they approached Naruto noticed a bright flare of light near the man's face and realized that he was smoking. Naruto hated smokers. They stank far too much for tolerance in his opinion. The only one he could stand was the old man, but that was thanks to the more fragrant pipe weed that he was fond of. Still, he followed Blue up to the man while attempting to keep a blank face despite the pungent fumes being taken in by his nostrils.

The man threw the cigarette to the ground and stomped it out before addressing Blue. "Can I help you, little lady?"

"I certainly hope so," she replied in an alluring voice that Naruto had never heard her use before. It definitely wasn't right for Blue.

"I'm here to offer the boss a little entertainment." She winked at the man and leaned forward a bit, revealing even more cleavage to the now near-drooling man.

"I haven't heard anything about any entertainment tonight lady." The man's voice was shaky and his eyes wouldn't leave Blue's chest, except to glance at Naruto after many moments. "And what is the brat doing here?"

"My master sent us to make sure that your boss was well taken care of tonight. He wasn't sure as to what to send though, so he wanted to make _sure_ his associate enjoyed himself." Naruto noticed that she was still using that sultry voice that seemed so removed from her normally kind yet clipped speech.

The man's face bore a confused expression before taking on a look of pure disgust. "Shit. You must be kidding me lady. That's fucking disgusting." Naruto looked on curiously, not understanding quite what was going on but concentrating on remaining quiet for Blue. "The boss doesn't do that kind of shit. Get the kid outta here."

Blue looked a bit abashed before seemingly regaining her confidence. Naruto was almost sure it was an act. "I doubt you could be so sure of that, but regardless the kid needs to stay with me. I'm responsible for him tonight, after all. I can't just send him off in the dark like this and hope he makes it back, right?" She regained her sultry demeanor before resuming her conversation. "We can come in, right?"

The man glanced at Naruto before his attention moved back to Blue's breasts. "I suppose you can go in." His eyes flitted to Naruto once again with a frown marring his face. "But isn't he a little young for…" He didn't finish before he took on a sick look. "Ugh, I don't care, just get inside."

With that Blue and Naruto entered through the rusty door now held open for them by the disgruntled smoker. The inside of the building was lit almost painfully bright. Compared to the dark street outside it seemed to Naruto as if he had just looked directly into the sun. Still, he followed closely on Blue's heals as she marched determinedly up a flight of stairs to reach the second floor. It led to a corridor branching both left and right. At the end of the left hallway Naruto could make out a small room where a group of men gathered around a table arguing loudly. He thought they were playing cards. Another roughshod man stood in the corridor to the right and straightened as they approached.

Blue walked up to him and smiled seductively. "I'm here to entertain the boss for the evening. The boy is here with me, just in case."

The man looked a bit flustered before regaining his composure and scowling at Naruto. "You go through this door," he gestured behind him, "but the brat stays out here. The boss has got no use for 'im."

"I can't just leave him out here. He's my responsibility. I'd be dead if anything happened to him." She looked at Naruto appraisingly. "He knows what to do. He'll be quiet one way or another."

"Alright, whatever. Just get in there and do your thing. Afterwards I might even have some work for you." He smiled wickedly and Naruto's dislike of the man increased exponentially. Normal people didn't smile like that.

They walked through another grimy door and into a deserted room decorated with a stained rug and a few chairs. They continued through it to a door on the opposite wall. Inside was a larger room with a number of battered pieces of furniture and a few modern appliances scattered about, including a television. On an ugly, brown couch against the wall lay a man with gray hair and a grizzled complexion. Naruto didn't think him fat, per se, but everything on his body seemed to sag even as he sat up on the couch and acknowledged their presence.

"Well hello, my dear. To what do I owe this pleasure?" The man leered disgustingly at Blue as he stood from his seat and began to approach them.

Blue looked at him dispassionately, seeming to study this old and unimpressive character. Her stoic demeanor evaporated as she replied. "I'm here to reward you for your _loyal,_" she spat the word, "devotion to your business partners."

The man stopped his approach as six sheets of paper flew quickly to adhere themselves to the floor, ceiling, and walls of the room. Even more escaped from under Blue's incredibly short skirt to completely cover the door and windows in unbroken sheets of white. Naruto's cursory glance found strange circular symbols imprinted on the paper sheets that were placed on the six surfaces of the room. His attention was drawn back to Blue however as her demeanor seemed to shift to one he had never seen before.

The short skirt and skimpy blouse disappeared in a torrent of paper sheets. After only a few moments the paper settled over her entire body. Instead of pants or skirts or shirts or blouses, Blue now bore an imposing high-collared black cloak decorated with crimson clouds. Her face was impassive and cold, as though she had not a care in the world for this place or the now cowering old man in front of her. "You betrayed us. You sold us out to _him_."

The kneeling man looked up with a terrified expression on his face. "I didn't! I didn't betray you! I swear it! I… I don't know what you're talking about!"

Blue sneered. "Despite all of your underhandedness you can't even lie to save your life. Our organization has no leaks. Because of you my allies are dead. You should have thought about the consequences before you made a pact with shinobi. You should have thought about the consequences before _betraying_ shinobi."

It was the first time that Naruto had seen Blue really angry, and it scared him. She didn't yell or froth at the mouth like some of the people in Konoha did. She simply looked at the man with such complete loathing that Naruto felt like the man should be screaming from the hate being directed at him. That's when he noticed that the man was trembling and sweating uncontrollably. The old man fell to his hands and knees, yet the trembling persisted.

"Please… please. I didn't have a choice. His men approached me. I, I had to tell the truth. He would have killed me!"

"You're the criminal here, Takahashi. You're the one used to hiding and lying. You're the one with no honor. You should have resisted but you didn't." Blue looked down on his cowering form with contempt. Naruto watched, fascinated, as pristine white paper fluttered yet again out of her right sleeve and formed a wicked-looking blade. "You should have known that if he didn't kill you then we would have."

With that Blue lunged forward and swept her arm-turned-blade across the man's neck – _through_ the man's neck. Naruto watched, fascinated, as the man's body slumped over to the right while his head rolled off to the left. Then the blood started flowing from the now headless corpse in what seemed to Naruto as a nearly endless stream, as if someone was simply pouring blood onto the carpet below the corpse. He turned around, too horrified to look at the scene.

A hand on his shoulder made him jump and he resisted the urge to scream.

"You should look you know." Naruto forced his head to turn and look at Blue, despite her attention still being behind him, supposedly on the gushing corpse. "If you look away from what you fear then your terror of it will only grow." She turned to give him a sad smile. "If you look upon your fear then you will understand it's horror and thus learn to confront it again if you must."

Naruto met her eyes for a moment before slowly turning around to take in the sight of the headless corpse once again. The dark stain on the carpet continued to spread slowly as blood oozed from what was left of the man's neck.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but this is what true shinobi do. We are soldiers trained to end the lives of others."

For the first time since Blue had explained their mission, Naruto spoke. "Why?" Blue put on a curious look. "Why do shinobi kill people?"

Blue remained silent for a moment. "That is something that a shinobi must learn for himself. I did it tonight because this man betrayed my friends and caused them to be killed by my enemies. You must learn to kill for what you believe in if you wish to become a great ninja."

"So you kill to help your friends?"

"Yes, that sounds about right, Naruto."

"I don't have any friends besides you, Blue." Naruto finally tore his eyes away from the dead body to look up at the woman. "I think I would hurt anyone who tried to kill you though. I think I could do that."

Blue let a small smile creep over her face despite the morbid atmosphere. "Remember that reason Naruto. Don't ever forget why you want to be a shinobi. If you do you will become a true monster." Blue raised her arms to be perpendicular to her chest and the paper throughout the room returned to rest inside the sleeves of her cloak. "But if you always remember why, you can be a real hero."

"A hero, Blue?"

"Of course. Just like the Third Hokage back in Konoha. He kills to protect the people of Konoha from those who wish to harm them."

"The old man kills people?"

Blue turned back to the entrance to the chambers. "He's killed more people than you've met in your whole life, Naruto." She looked into his eyes again. "Do you think he is a bad person for that?"

Naruto's eyes were still glued to the bloodied body. "He was always so nice to me. I never thought he would hurt people like that."

"He does what he thinks is best. He works to protect the people he cares about." She put a hand on Naruto's shoulder and turned him away from the body and towards the door they had entered through. "A shinobi's life is never easy, Naruto. Even if you are trying to do your best to protect and help the ones you love, it still hurts a bit. You just have to decide what hurts more."

Naruto looked up at her, seeming even smaller than ever before. Still, his deep blue eyes seemed to convey an understanding that Blue found almost unnerving. She continued on anyways. "Do you think it will hurt more to watch your friends die, or to kill the people who are trying to hurt them?"

Blue leaned down and ruffled Naruto's hair. "It's alright, Naruto. You don't have to make a decision about what you're going to do right now. Just remember that your reason is your most important thing of all. That's what we call a nindo – a ninja code. Each shinobi must find his own and stick to it or else he will have no meaning in his life."

She walked towards the outer door and pushed it open. Even as the doorman turned to look at them, wondering what had gone wrong to end their session so quickly, white sheets burst forth and tore a bloody gash in his throat before the paper storm flew down the hallway and into the card-players' room. Only a few muffled gasps alerted Naruto to the fate of the men seated there. Naruto didn't much care at this point. His shoes were soaked with the doorman's blood and he barely noticed as his tight clothing loosened and returned to the state it was in before their evening excursion. He continued following Blue down the stairs to the exit where they had entered, only to barely witness her throwing open the door and dragging the cigarette smoking guard inside. Her left hand covered his mouth as her right hand reformed into the paper sabre and his throat was neatly sliced through. Naruto glanced at the dying man dispassionately – the blood didn't bother him so much any more.

Blue led him gently out into the street before turning around to the open door. She shifted through a number of hand seals before blowing a huge ball of red flame into the stairwell they had just descended. Very quickly the building began to light up as the unnatural fire spread throughout, concealing the actions committed there in the night.

Naruto watched on in fascination as the building burned. "What was that?"

"That was the fireball technique, Naruto."

"Will I be able to learn that?"

"Most likely."

Naruto stood transfixed by the flaming structure. "Cool."

And with that, Blue grabbed Naruto and sped across the rooftops into the night.

* * *

Naruto and Blue stood just inside of the tree line, staring into the murky rainstorm falling not twenty feet in front of them. Despite the ferocity of the downpour there, not a single drop fell upon them. Naruto looked curiously at his companion as if to ask a question, but remained silent. She would give him an answer if she felt it was needed.

"Welcome to Rain Country, Naruto." Still dressed in her black and red cloak she walked forward and stepped into the falling torrents. She turned around to look back at her young companion, who still stood just inside the tree cover. "This is my home, and will be yours, if you want it." She held out her right hand, palm up, to the young boy. "Will you come home with me?"

A small smile graced Naruto's face and continued to grow until it seemed to split his head from ear to ear. "Okay."

The small boy scampered happily out of the trees and stepped into the rain, grasping tightly onto the hand that was held out to him. Even as the rain continued to beat down upon them, the boy's smile never faltered. Together they set out for a safe place. They set out for home.

* * *

A man looked up from a rickety desk covered in yellowed scrolls and elaborate notes. His almost perpetually stoic countenance broke for a moment as a small smile threatened to split his severe yet youthful face.

"Welcome back, Konan," the man spoke quietly to himself. His eyes drifted unconsciously to the closed door that led to his small subterranean office despite the still extreme proximity to his closest friend.

The smile melted off of his face as he felt another presence enter his domain. The intruder didn't have a particularly alarming amount of chakra, but it was peculiar. It felt almost… sinister, in a way. Chakra that wasn't human. Nothing good could come from this.

"What have you done, Konan?"


	3. Have You Ever Seen the Rain?

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Posted: **8/30/08

**A/N: **Now that the intro chapters are out of the way, we can move into the nitty-gritty of the story. I hope that I didn't take too long in getting there.

As always, reviews are appreciated and help motivate me to continue writing in a (moderately) timely manner.

So far I haven't gotten any critical reviews. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or if everyone is just being too nice. Don't be nice. I can take it.

**Chapter Title: **_Have You Ever Seen the Rain?_ by CCR.

* * *

It was Kyuubi, he was sure.

It had only taken him a few minutes to deduce that the strangeness that he was sensing was caused by a sealed bijuu, and the young Uzumaki boy was the only jinchuuriki that Konan would have encountered.

What puzzled him was why Konan had decided to bring the boy back with her. He had made it very clear that Akatsuki would not be ready to move for a good deal of time – possibly more than a decade – and that their main concern at this point was staying below the notice of the shinobi world.

Akatsuki was still new and still searching for worthy members. Though Madara had made it clear that he would not participate in the organization directly, he had provided a number of contacts that were beginning to turn into valuable associates. The elusive Zetsu. Kakuzu the Hunter. Akasuna no Sasori the great puppeteer of the desert. The Monster of the Hidden Mist – Hoshigaki Kisame. Even the traitorous Snake Sannin, Orochimaru, had been approached and expressed an interest in membership. They were some of the greatest criminals in history, and they were dangerous.

Pain would use them.

His thoughts shifted back to the problem at hand as he glanced down at the mountains of notes on his desk before him. Having the Kyuubi jinchuuriki here could not possibly help them. The technique he was developing to seal the bijuu was years away from completion, and on top of it all of his calculations showed that the Kyuubi - due to it's unprecedented strength – would have to be sealed last of all or the technique would almost surely become unstable. It's sealing was at least a decade away from Pain's perspective.

No matter. He would find out Konan's reasoning soon enough.

He began to meticulously clean his desk of the old sealing scrolls and newer notebooks containing his research, carefully placing them on the shelves covering the rock walls of this room, his study.

Konan would be there in short order with the boy and all would be explained.

* * *

"…Outside while I go let him know that you are here. Please be quiet and do not wander. I'll come out to get you in a few minutes, Naruto."

The Kyuubi for certain, then.

"What if someone else comes while I'm waiting?" The voice was that of young child, not yet five years old if Pain's intelligence was correct. It always was.

"No one knows about this place but us. Don't worry, you'll be safe."

The door opened and Konan's cloaked figure backed in through the door before closing it again and running her hand over the doorway, activating the seals placed into the wooden frame. She turned around and found Pain studying her from behind his desk with the intense scrutiny that she found only he possessed, as if he was peeling away her many layers of subterfuge with his eyes.

She had learned long ago that it was pointless to try to hide even the smallest things from him. He could see right through her. Then again, there wasn't much of importance that she ever did try to hide from him.

"Well?"

She averted her eyes slightly as the anxiety that she had been suppressing came back full force. "The mission was a success. Our new partners in Konoha have agreed to our terms and will begin delivery next month. I was also successful in tying up our loose ends. Takahashi was…"

"Konan." He pulled her eyes back up to his own. "You know what I meant."

She swallowed nervously. If there was ever a time before now that she had felt like a disobedient child being scolded by her parents, she certainly couldn't remember it. Yet here she was, caught with her hands in the figurative cookie jar, and by her best and only friend no less.

Pain sighed. "What could you have possibly been thinking? What purpose does bringing a defenseless child here serve? You know that we won't be able to extract the bijuu for many years yet, more than a decade most likely. It will take me that long just to complete the jutsu."

Konan looked up quickly, an almost angry expression on her face. It startled Pain a bit. He wasn't used to her showing him negative emotion. "I didn't bring him here to kill him," she practically hissed.

Pain's eyes narrowed at that. "And for what other purpose would you risk our organization's secrecy other than to obtain the power of the Kyuubi?" He asked it slowly, almost daring her to give another reason.

Konan straightened up impressively, not wishing to show any weakness even to her friend. "That boy's whole life was a despicable farce! No one deserves to live like he did in Konoha. You didn't see how the people looked at him, spat on him. He was living far worse than we ever did, Pain. I couldn't leave him there to suffer that."

"So you kidnapped him to what? Give him a better life?" Pain scoffed at that. "You knew what sorts of lives jinchuurikis lead. I didn't think you the type to cave in over one sniveling little brat. Perhaps you would rather open an orphanage to help disadvantaged children instead of trying to prevent the very wars that create those orphans to begin with?"

Konan was angry now. Angry and thankful that she had activated the privacy seals on the doorway. "Don't speak to me as if I don't understand what our purpose is, as if I haven't given everything for our cause! Naruto can be useful to us if we raise him to be our ally."

"That boy is going to die, and we are going to kill him. Or have you already forgotten that, Konan?" Pain was as calm and collected as ever - and it only served to anger Konan more.

"If we train him properly he can become more useful to us alive than dead."

Pain contemplated that for a moment. "We have no knowledge of how to train a jinchuuriki to properly utilize its powers. In any event, Madara would not stand for it. He seems obsessed with recovering the Kyuubi from within the boy for his own purposes."

"Then we won't train him as a jinchuuriki. We'll train him as a ninja. We can do that at least." Konan paused here and gave Pain her own piercing look. "And when did you start caring what Uchiha Madara wanted?"

Pain looked at Konan sternly. "I do not, but that does not change the fact that if we keep the boy here Madara will undoubtedly discover his presence and become overly curious. I wish to avoid conflict with that man if at all possible - especially this early in our campaign. Besides, he is a valuable ally to us." Pain's countenance softened a bit and he exhaled loudly before looking at Konan again. "What are we to do now? We cannot return him to Konoha without raising suspicions about ourselves. We cannot kill him without dispersing the Kyuubi. I have no way of knowing how long it will take to re-manifest itself. We could all be long dead by then."

Konan cut in quickly. "We will have to keep him here then - hidden away so that no one can find him - and create a story to give to Madara should he come calling. We may as well train him as a ninja if he is to be here for the next decade or more."

Pain frowned. "It seems you've planned this out carefully. Did you intend to corner me like this?" He shook his head slowly while trying to find another solution. Seeing none, he looked up again. "I have trouble believing that you took him simply because you saw a kindred spirit, especially when you seem so intent on giving the boy training. What makes you think he will make a formidable ninja? The boy is simply the final survivor the Uzumaki clan, is he not? A powerful history there, to be sure, but not nearly enough to catch your notice."

Konan grinned for the first time since entering the room and summoned her Bingo Book from up her sleeve. Quickly rifling through it, she found the desired page and handed the open book across the desk to a puzzled looking Pain.

"Namikaze Minato? The Fourth Hokage - SS-ranked ninja of Konohagakure, also known as the Yellow Flash. Hero of the Third Great Secret World War. Sealer of the Nine-Tailed Fox into its current container, Uzumaki Naruto. Hero of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. I know all of this already, Konan."

"His son."

Pain looked up from the book. "Pardon?"

"He sealed the Kyuubi into Uzumaki Naruto, his son."

Pain blinked, then cocked his head to the side. "You are sure of this? I wasn't aware that he had children."

"Naruto would have been his first I believe, and given the circumstances he would have been born on the day of his father's death. As the son of a Hokage he would have had many enemies."

"And so they gave him a false name and covered up his lineage to protect him, interesting." He closed the book and set it down on the desk.

"It's possible that he really is an Uzumaki and simply took his mother's maiden name."

"Indeed." Pain took on a thoughtful expression for a moment as he pondered this new development. "If what you say is true then he very well could become a powerful ally, and a loyal one. How do you know of his identity?"

Konan smiled conspiratorially. "Why don't I just show you?"

Pain quirked an eyebrow as Konan turned to the door and opened it. "Please come in now, Naruto. There's someone here that I'd like you to meet."

* * *

Naruto spun his head to look up at the doorway from his seated position against the wall of the corridor to meet Blue's smiling face. She beckoned him in with a few words of encouragement and Naruto followed cautiously through the door. He hoped that Blue's friend would like him.

Entering the room he came face to face with one of the strangest yet most imposing characters he had ever seen. The man was neither particularly short nor tall, but had a bearing that spoke of endless power and authority. Like Blue, he wore a black cloak decorated with blood red clouds that he kept buttoned from his waist to the collar. He had spiked, unruly hair much like Naruto's own, but instead of a golden blond his was a light red - almost orange - shade. The severe countenance on the rather youthful face was enhanced by a myriad of black piercings that occupied his nose, lower lip, and ears many times over. Most of all, Naruto was drawn to the piercing, ethereal, steel blue eyes that had no whites in them. Instead the entire eye was occupied by increasingly larger concentric circles that gave the appearance of someone having dropped a small stone into a puddle of mercury. They were unnerving.

The man studied him closely even as Naruto took in his appearance, a small smile gracing his lips, as though he were giving approval of Naruto.

"Naruto." The boy finally broke his fixation on the strange man and his attention found Blue once again. "I'd like to introduce you to my friend and partner. This is Pain," she indicated, gesturing to the man. "Oh, and I nearly forgot. Now that we're here, I can tell you that my name is Konan."

Naruto smiled at the woman he now knew as Konan and replied. "That's a very pretty name, Konan." He turned back to the man. "It's nice to meet you Pain. Will you be helping me train to become a ninja?"

Pain began to walk around the desk, picked up the Bingo Book Konan had given him and tossed it back to her. "That remains to be seen." His mesmerizing gaze still studied Naruto with intense scrutiny. "Take off your shirt."

Naruto was momentarily taken off guard by the strange request. "Wh-what?"

The next thing Naruto knew he was staring into the cold eyes of Pain, glaring mere inches in front of his nose. He gasped - or tried to - and it was then that he realized that he was suspended three feet off of the ground, grasped at the neck by the man called Pain. There wasn't even enough time for him to be afraid before the man spoke in his calm, steady, and deep voice. "Child." Naruto found that though he wished it, he could not tear his eyes away from those metallic pools before him. "You will do precisely as I say, precisely as I say it, or I will lock you in a small, dark cell and never let you out until the day you die." He paused for a moment to let his words sink in. "Do you understand?"

Naruto nearly panicked at his situation, but managed to compose himself just enough to answer. Though he was held by the throat, he found that the grip was not particularly tight or painful, and rasped out his answer fairly quickly and intelligibly, given the circumstances. "Yes, sir."

He was carefully lowered down to the ground, and as his feet touched the floor the tension in his body released just a bit. When he finally regained his bearings he looked back to his cloaked companions who he found were simply staring at him. He blinked back at them for a moment, before Konan gave her collar an exaggerated tug.

He scrambled as he remembered what he was supposed to be doing. Quickly tearing his dirty shirt from over his shoulders, he quickly placed it in Konan's outstretched hand. Pain nodded. "Now get up on the desk and lay down on your back."

Naruto turned to the desk - which his spiky hair barely reached the surface of - then looked back to Pain in confusion.

Konan giggled. Pain glanced at her and grumbled something unintelligible, then stepped forward to pick Naruto up underneath his arms and set him on the edge of the desk. "Lay on your back."

Naruto did as he was told, though he was quite nervous about what was going to be done to him. He watched the redhead's eyes narrow in concentration as they bore into his stomach and forced himself to remain still as Pain placed the fingertips of each of his hands on the sides of Naruto's belly, the bellybutton directly between them.

Pain glanced to Naruto's face for a moment before he spoke. "This will be uncomfortable."

And it was. Naruto's face scrunched up painfully as Pain started flowing his chakra into the seal. It didn't hurt so much as conveyed a feeling of _wrongness_ to Naruto – as if something slimy and alive was creeping through his gut. Despite the discomfort, Naruto raised his head to look down at what was occurring. He was surprised to see dark tattoos appearing on his stomach centered on his navel that had never been there before. From his position he couldn't make out the designs well, but they looked to be in a strange language and drawn in a circle.

Having failed to determine what was happening, he looked back up to Pain who was studying the designs with a frown. As the minutes dragged on and nothing seemed to be happening, Naruto couldn't help but fidget slightly, drawing Pain's attention away from the seal. He released the pressure on Naruto's belly and stepped back while keeping his eyes fixed on Naruto.

"This is wrong."

Konan looked shocked for a moment before replying with a flustered "what?"

"This is the most complex seal I have ever seen - much different from any of the others that I've studied. It's not a simple jinchuuriki seal though. I'm just not sure what its purpose is…"

"But he is the one we're looking for, right?"

Pain glanced at the woman beside him and then back to the small child now sitting on the edge of his desk. "Naruto, you will need to go back outside for a few minutes."

"Alright." The golden-haired child held his arms out to the man before him who looked at him strangely for a moment, before again grabbing the boy underneath his arms and letting him down. Konan helped put the grimy shirt back on and the child scampered out the door, closing it quietly behind him. She hastily refreshed the seals on the doorframe and turned back to her friend, who was leaning comfortably on the edge of his desk.

"I've never heard of a seal like this one before, but it's a certainty that what's left of the Kyuubi resides in that boy."

"What's left?"

Pain crossed his arms and adopted a pensive expression. "Yes, the Kyuubi's chakra within the seal is incredibly unbalanced, as though part of it has been torn away. I would have to determine the exact jutsu used to seal the beast in order to find out why, but the fact stands." He sighed almost inaudibly. "Whatever it is that Namikaze did will make it incredibly difficult to extract the Kyuubi from the boy in any state. If what I fear is true then the Kyuubi truly will be destroyed upon Naruto's death. The seal itself is so complex and specialized that I'm not sure it can be undone. In any case, my jutsu will not be able to break it."

"I suppose it's a good thing that I brought him here then, is it not?" She gave him a slight smile of encouragement.

Pain nodded back, still in deep contemplation. "Yes, very fortuitous. Especially if we cannot recover the Kyuubi. If that's the case then our only options are to destroy the boy or recruit him. Having such a powerful influence working against us is unacceptable."

"And what will we tell Madara?"

"Simple. We'll tell him that I needed a proper jinchuuriki seal to study and that Naruto was the easiest to acquire. Madara is still operating under the belief that Kyuubi must be sealed last into my technique, which would have been true if the technique could extract the Kyuubi. We have plenty of time."

A hopeful expression grew on Konan's face. "Does this mean that you will agree to help train Naruto?"

Pain refocused on his close friend and frowned. "Are you really so close to the boy after so little time that you care about his well-being to such an extent?" He closed his eyes and shook his head. "Don't grow too soft Konan. If I agree to help you train him I will not go easy on him, and neither should you - for his sake as well as our own. You know what growing up in this country means."

"A childhood in the Weeping Country is nothing to envy."

"Precisely. He will have to prove his worth to us, and quickly. I will not waste my time on him."

Konan nodded. "Very well."

"Also, we cannot afford to shirk our own responsibilities in favor of a child who holds no worth to us now. Our plans must stay on track if we are to succeed."

"Of course."

Pain stood up off of the desk and walked around it, opening a drawer and removing a strange kunai as he did so. Konan's eyes followed it closely as he set it point down on the desktop, holding it in place with his hand. As he began to speak he slowly spun it, drilling lightly into the wooden surface. "Contact the quartermaster discreetly and have him supply Naruto with proper attire. We can have Naruto stay in the library so long as he does not ruin anything. I'll set up a cot for him."

"Do we have equipment for a child so young in our stores?"

"I ordered our raid groups to recover _everything_ from the Rain supply depots we've assaulted. They have been thorough so far. I imagine that there is quite a lot of gear there that Naruto can use, considering he is our only young compatriot. It shouldn't be an issue."

"Very well." Konan's gaze was drawn to Pain's fiddling with the strange kunai. "I haven't seen you look at that in quite some time, did Naruto remind you that you still had it?"

Pain glanced up from the weapon to meet Konan's eyes. "I'm going to give it to him."

"What?" Konan had a look of disbelief on her face. "You can't be serious."

Pain smiled. "It's nothing more than an odd kunai now. The seals are damaged enough that they can't be used or deciphered. That's the reason why it wasn't recovered in the first place, after all." His smile shifted to a thoughtful look for a moment. "Every child wants something to remember his parents by, even if no such thing exists. Naruto may make good use of it in any case."

"Don't you want to study it more, to see what it does?"

"I know what it does, Konan. I just can't understand how it does it. There should be no way to reverse summon oneself, but somehow Namikaze managed to discover the secret. This kunai is of no use to me any longer."

"I just can't believe that you'd give away a legendary weapon like that," Konan replied, a petulant scowl on her face. She looked up after a moment and turned to the door. "I'll get Naruto settled in. Goodbye."

"Konan." At the sound of his voice the blue-haired woman turned back to listen. "No one, absolutely no one, can know that he is here outside of ourselves and Madara. I'd prefer it to just be us two, but there's just no way to keep this from him. Zetsu as well, in all likelihood. As of right now Naruto is our most closely guarded secret. Only the four of us are permitted to know. I will make sure that Madara and Zetsu understand this."

She nodded and gracefully exited the room.

Pain watched her leave and remained staring at the door for a moment, deep in thought. The famous tri-pronged kunai still dug slowly into the wooden desktop as it turned in his hand. It was nearly twenty minutes later that he finally spoke again, this time quietly and to himself.

"It wasn't the kunai that was legendary, Konan. It was the one who wielded it. Now we'll simply have to forge our own legendary weapon, greater than the last."

* * *

Konan led Naruto down a dimly lit hallway cut from the living rock of the hill they had entered before meeting Pain. It was only a minute before they reached an unassuming door, identical to the one leading to Pain's study and the few they had passed on the way here. Naruto resolved that he would learn to keep his directions straight while inside the bunker.

Inside the room - which was a fairly passable rectangle despite being hewn from solid stone - sat four long bookshelves jutting out from the back wall and filled from floor to ceiling with scrolls of all sizes. Next to the door was a small writing desk with a very utilitarian reading lamp and a rather plain cot.

"This will be your room for the foreseeable future. We don't have much extra space at the moment, but you won't be doing much other than sleeping in here anyways."

Naruto looked the room over carefully, spending extra time studying the bookshelves. "I've never had my own room before. This should be nice." He walked over and sat on the edge of the low cot and bounced slightly. It didn't have much give to it, but Naruto determined that it was as good as - if not better than - the lumpy bed he had slept on in Konoha. "How did you find this place?"

"Pain and I built it some years ago. Our own secret hideaway."

"Straight through the rocks? It must have taken a long time to dig it out."

Konan laughed lightly at this. "Yes, digging certainly would have taken quite a long time, but that's not what we did. We used our ninjutsu to tunnel into this hillside. We used skills similar to the fireball technique I used in River Country, but with earth instead."

Naruto's face shifted into a picture of awe. "Ninjas can use the earth too? You can do that?"

"I'm not particularly good at it, especially when dealing with bedrock like this. It takes a very powerful ninja with an earth affinity to manipulate dense stone in any large quantity. I usually just helped move the rocks and dirt out."

"Does that mean that Pain has a strong, um, earth affinity?"

Konan quirked her head to the side in amusement. "Something like that."

Naruto nodded slowly, but clearly wanted more of an explanation. He decided to hold off until later since Konan didn't seem willing to spill the beans just yet. "There are lots of scrolls in here. What are they about?"

"Hm… Pain spent a good deal of time collecting historical scrolls about the ancient clans, their histories, and rare abilities when we were a bit younger. Most of what you see here are those scrolls. I think there may be some on basic chakra theory and sealing somewhere around here as well." She turned to look Naruto in the eye. "Now Naruto, Pain has said that he will let you read any of these scrolls that you like so long as you do not damage them or misplace them. They are ordered carefully, so if you take any down to read you'll have to be able to replace them properly. Understand?"

"Yes, Konan," the small boy chirped with a smile on his face. It appeared as though he wanted to do some reading.

"Either Pain or I will be waking you up tomorrow morning, early. I expect you to get some sleep and be ready to begin your training in earnest. We will not be going easy on you at all Naruto. Remember that you told me that you would try your very hardest to become a great ninja. We will hold you to that. Now get to sleep."

Konan turned to leave the boy to his rest and moved swiftly to the door. Just before she closed the portal she was stopped once again by a voice. "Goodnight, Konan."

She reopened the door a bit and looked back inside to see Naruto already flopped on his cot. "Goodnight, Naruto."

Konan closed the door and placed her hand over a subtle seal on the wall next to the door and used a small burst of chakra to extinguish the lights inside the young boy's new room. She turned and moved down the corridor with a light-hearted smile and a barely perceptible bounce to her step. Tomorrow would be an interesting day.

* * *

"Wake up."

Naruto grimaced and covered his eyes as the lights flashed on around him. A loud complaint nearly escaped his lips before he clapped his hands over his mouth and frantically rolled off of his cot, thumping loudly to the ground. He scrambled to his feet and faced the voice, still trying to protect his sensitive eyes from the rude intrusion of the overhead lighting.

As his eyes adjusted they fell upon the face of Pain, the corners of his mouth quirked up in a small smirk. It was his voice Naruto had registered in the nick of time. Naruto wondered if he really would have been locked up had he retorted to Pain's command as he rubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands - one at a time, of course, so that he could keep the stern man in sight.

"I see you remember our conversation. That's very good." Pain turned to walk out the door and spoke without pausing. "Follow me."

Naruto wasted no time in complying, and followed the dark figure up the corridor in the direction that they had entered the tunnel complex from. They stopped again at another nondescript wooden door near where Naruto thought Pain's study had been. The tunnels were truly confusing.

"So that intruders are hindered."

Naruto's head snapped up towards Pain, who again sported a slight smirk. Naruto was about to ask how the man had known what he was thinking when Pain spoke again.

"Inside you will find a bucket of water, a cloth, soap, and fresh clothes. You will wash yourself, dress, and then meet me here. You have five minutes." Pain turned and started off down the corridor without a second glance.

Once the words had registered in Naruto's head, he quickly opened the door to find himself in a small, bare room. It couldn't have been more than eight feet to a side, and had only a small wooden bench as furniture. A wooden bucket sat on the floor filled with clean water and the soap and linens could be found on the edge of the bench. Naruto quickly stripped and began scrubbing himself thoroughly. He hadn't had a bath in two days and was truly grateful for the opportunity to rinse the grime of his journey off of himself. As he scrubbed, he noticed that the water ran down the imperceptible incline of the floor to a small gutter along one side of the room, where the water then flowed through a grated hole in the wall. He rushed to finish washing himself before Pain returned.

Ten minutes later - in which Naruto was introduced to a makeshift bathroom similar in design to the shower room and a room that he assumed was the kitchen based on the food he was supplied with there - found the small boy staring in awe at a massive cavern. He was dressed in a sturdy, long-sleeved shirt, pants, and a fresh pair of ninja sandals, all colored dark gray. The ceiling of the cavern - covered in the same mysterious lights Naruto had seen in the other rooms of the complex - towered high above the boulder-strewn floor. It was clear to Naruto that this room was all natural as there were no sharp corners or truly flat surfaces. The walls were smooth and slick with moisture while the ceiling and floor sported fearsomely sharp rock formations in the likeness of the maw of some ferocious beast. Naruto found that the light reflecting from the glossy surfaces gave off an ephemeral beauty that added to the otherworldliness of the cavern. It was a foreboding and wondrous place.

"Before you ask, no, Konan will not be joining us today. She is on a mission and will not return until sometime tomorrow." Pain paced a few steps into the cavern and surveyed it slowly. "This is our training room. No elemental ninjutsu may be used in this place under any circumstances. Is that clear?"

"Elemental ninjutsu… Is that like Konan's fireball and your, um, digging moves?"

Pain blinked and mentally berated himself for assuming that Naruto understood what he was talking about while simultaneously thanking the gods that the boy had picked up on his meaning already. "Correct. You cannot use such jutsus as of yet, but when you can remember this rule. It would be much too easy to cause unnecessary damage to this place if such skills were attempted here. We wouldn't want the ceiling caving in on you, now would we?"

Naruto gulped and shook his head.

"Good. Now, the first thing a ninja-in-training must do is learn to access his chakra. Do you know what chakra is?"

"I know that it's in everything and that we need it to live and that ninjas use it to do special ninja moves."

"Did Konan tell you this?"

"Um, a little, yes."

"Very well. Sit."

Naruto crossed his legs and plopped down with his back to a stalagmite to listen. Pain remained standing to begin what would be the first of many lectures.

"Chakra is the life energy that all living organisms produce. It consists of the spiritual energy found in all life combined with the physical energy of the creature's form. In our case, the body's health is a good indicator of physical energy. By combining both spiritual and physical energy, a ninja can create and mold chakra to perform a nearly unlimited number of feats that most beings have no hope of achieving. What separates ninjas and nin-animals from most creatures is the ability to perform this manipulation to produce a desired result."

Pain stopped when he noticed a puzzled look on Naruto's face. "Nin-animals are sentient creatures that occasionally form cooperative partnerships with ninjas. We will discuss them in depth further into your training."

Naruto's expression softened at that and he responded with a short nod.

"Ninjas must be conscious of not only their chakra as a whole but also their spiritual and physical states separately. A strong control of one's chakra is essential to being an effective ninja, and a strong control of chakra can only be achieved through a balance of both spirit and body. Neglecting one aspect of your chakra can result in poor or inefficient performance and low power.

"Because each person's body and spirit are unique, each person's chakra is similarly unique…"

* * *

It took nearly two hours of explanation before Pain was content with Naruto's understanding of chakra and its uses. Despite his fidgeting, the small boy was immensely happy that someone had spent the time to explain something in detail to him. He was even more elated that his questions were answered, and thoroughly, instead of simply being dismissed.

Pain was equally pleased. In his more than twenty years of life as a ninja he had never considered taking on a student of his own. Though he was a bit miffed that this one had been more or less forced upon him, the child was truly willing to learn.

Pain had learned long ago that many ninja didn't truly understand the fundamentals of what they did or the power they controlled. Perhaps it was a curse of his bloodline to see the intricacies of the ninja arts, but the man had become a perfectionist in every sense of the word where his chosen profession was concerned. And his student listened attentively to his complicated explanations. They were long-winded, he knew, but it would be worth it in the long run to make sure that Naruto understood the fundamentals thoroughly in order to prevent any damaging misconceptions.

Most of all, speaking with Naruto gave him an outlet for his thoughts and a slight distraction from the ongoing war that he was ferociously waging. Truth be told, Pain was a lonely man. He only ever spoke to Konan – who despite their closeness was often away on missions for extended periods of time – and his most trusted lieutenants – whom he forced himself to keep aloof from. It was a sad truth that Pain had only ever trusted three people in his life after the loss of his family. One had abandoned him and one had been killed thanks to his own foolishness.

So he no longer trusted.

Reluctantly he admitted to himself that the small boy before him could very well be his fourth trusted person.

"Stand up."

Naruto rolled onto his feet and stood up shakily. Hours of sitting on the hard rock floor had put his legs to sleep, so he found himself stretching and bouncing from one foot to another in order to get the blood circulating through his body once again.

"You're going to draw out your chakra now. Form the ram seal as I am doing."

Naruto watched as Pain brought his hands together palm to palm with the ring and little finger of his right hand curled over those of his left while his index and middle fingers remained extended. The boy then brought his hands together in the same position, paying careful attention to his fingers, then looked back to Pain's hands to check his work.

"Good. The ram seal aids in the circulation and molding of raw chakra, which can then be put to use in a multitude of ways. The seal on its own, however, does nothing. In order for it to serve its purpose you must consciously initiate the flow of chakra within you. This is done by first feeling the chakra within your body.

"To access your chakra you must feel within yourself for the natural flow of your energy and draw it out. Luckily you possess an incredibly high chakra capacity for your age, so this should be much simpler for you than for others."

Naruto seemed surprised by this. "Um, how do you know I have lots of chakra? Is that good?"

"I know for a number of reasons, which I don't wish to address today. Suffice it to say that I am well informed. As to your second question, a large chakra capacity is an exceptionally good thing for full-fledged ninja. It allows them to use more and stronger abilities in battle and contributes to a ninjas stamina – that determines the length of time a ninja can fight without becoming fatigued." He paused as Naruto's eyes furrowed and he unconsciously mouthed Pain's last word. He sighed. "It means to become tired."

Naruto's face brightened up at that. "Oh, I get it! So I'll be able to fight longer!"

Pain nodded. "Correct. Now, close your eyes and feel within yourself for the flow of your energy. I will bring you lunch in a bit. When you finish, I will be in my study. Come and find me when you accomplish this."

Naruto looked at him expectantly. "Third door to the right." The boy nodded and resumed his seated position on the ground as Pain turned to leave. He had more research to do if he ever intended to break Naruto's seal successfully. He found himself hoping that he wouldn't have the inclination to.

* * *

Pain cursed as he was interrupted from his work by a quiet knock on his door. It was late afternoon and the boy had only been working by himself for around four hours. He strode quickly to the door and opened it swiftly, gazing impassively down at the small golden-haired boy before him. "I have nothing else to tell you until you finish your exercises. Do not disturb me again." He began to close the door when Naruto spoke.

"I did finish, I think. I can feel my chakra now!" The boy was rather indignant, and it caused Pain to raise an eyebrow.

"Come in." He moved inside and around his desk to sit once more. Naruto followed and stood next to his chair quietly. Opening a drawer Pain pulled out a sheet of blank, white paper and drew a circle - only a bit larger than a golf ball - in the middle with his fingertip. The circle fell away from the rest of the sheet and he quickly picked it up off of the desk, stuffing the excess paper back into the drawer.

He turned to study the boy for a moment, taking in his curious gaze and determined posture. Naruto's forehead was beaded with sweat, as though he had been concentrating too intensely for a period of time. He leaned forward and wiped the moisture from the boy's brow with his sleeve, studiously ignoring the small flinch of the whiskered child.

"Draw on your chakra and focus it to your forehead, I'm going to perform a test."

Naruto nodded and placed his hands in the ram seal before closing his eyes tightly. "I'm ready."

"Very well, remember to focus your chakra to your forehead." Pain placed the circle of paper on the boy's brow and let go. The paper immediately popped off of the skin nearly an inch and fell to the floor. "Continue." He recovered the paper and placed it on Naruto's forehead once again, and once again the paper popped off before falling to the floor. "You may stop."

Pain was honestly surprised at the result. Even with Naruto's large chakra he hadn't expected the boy to succeed in finding his chakra so quickly – nearly as quickly as he had when he was twice this boy's age. Naruto's chakra was strong enough to push the paper away from him - which was the expected result of such an uncontrolled molding of energy. Sticking the paper to his forehead would be the next exercise – one taught to Pain by his old master – and would require Naruto to mold his chakra precisely so as to not push it away or lose his "grip" on it.

This spoke well of Naruto's talent. To grasp his chakra so quickly was extraordinarily rare. Still, his massive chakra capacity would cause him to be plagued by control issues for a great deal of time to come.

No matter. It was an excellent starting point in Pain's opinion. Naruto would be a worthwhile student.

"Naruto."

"Yes?"

"I am not sure how much Konan told you about our situation here, but if you are to be my apprentice then this information is important to you." Naruto straightened up and looked Pain in his steely eyes. "Konan and I currently lead a rebel army against the leader of this nation and his pawns. They wish nothing more than to destroy us completely. By joining us you too will become their enemy. Konan and I have no desire to see you harmed or placed into a dangerous situation until you are prepared to handle it. Therefore, you will remain inside this compound at all times unless accompanied by one of us."

Naruto nodded, wide eyed.

"You are here, Naruto, to learn, but do not expect me to accommodate you more than is necessary. My goals are already set and my time is precious. I will agree to train you so long as you show the ability and inclination to become a powerful ninja capable of helping me achieve my aims. If you fail in this then I have no desire to assist you - or tolerate you - in any form. I will give you the same consideration that my master gave me." Pain studied Naruto closely and was pleased to see that he still drew the boy's undivided attention.

"Three years. That is the amount of time I will give you to train and prepare you to serve in our cause. If your conviction is strong enough then it should be plenty of time for you to become proficient in the ninja arts. If not…"

The boy seemed to puff up as Pain spoke, causing him to gaze warily at the child. "I won't disappoint you, Pain. I promised Konan that I will be a great ninja, maybe the greatest ever, and I don't go back on my word!"

The older man stared at Naruto's proud and determined smile and gave a small nod. "That is good, Naruto. I would not want to be disappointed." He glanced around the room quickly, seemingly looking for something, before standing abruptly and turning to Naruto.

"Stay here." Pain left the room quickly and returned a few moments later with a simple wooden stool, which he placed in front of his desk. "Take a seat, we'll move on now to the basics of the ninja arts. Training is over for today, but pay close attention to what I tell you now because this information will be essential to you throughout your ninja career."

Naruto moved around the desk and clambered onto the tall stool. Sitting atop it he could easily see over the edge of the desk to Pain, who had retaken his seat behind the wooden fixture.

"Ninja abilities are divided into three basic groups, known as taijutsu, genjutsu, and ninjutsu. Each branch constitutes a different set of skills used for different situations and performed in different ways. What ties the three together is the use of chakra in each of the branches to achieve a desired effect. Believe me when I tell you that a thorough understanding of each of these three branches is essential to surviving as a ninja. A weakness in any one area could spell your death against a cunning adversary.

"Taijutsu is the branch which deals with physical attacks – generally hand to hand. Ninjas utilize taijutsu by channeling chakra to their limbs and body to enhance their strength, speed, and durability. Some ninjas learn extensive forms of taijutsu. We will not be doing this. I will teach you basic forms, strategies, and techniques in the usage of taijutsu and leave it up to you to develop a style that most suits your own body. Any ninja can learn to copy the instructions of another but only great ninjas can successfully create a style that suits them perfectly. Just as every ninja is different, every ninja's ideal taijutsu style is also different, even if only slightly.

"You will not be training to become a good shinobi, Naruto. I already have plenty of those under my command. You will be training to become an exceptional one. This means that you will have to influence your own training and style to a great degree. I could teach you everything I know and you would not be my match simply because my style would not be ideal for you, among other things. I expect you to put effort and creativity into developing your own style."

Naruto nodded in agreement. "Will I be using weights to train my taijutsu, Pain? I heard ninjas in Konoha use them sometimes. They sound really cool and help you become really strong!"

Pain snorted. "No, absolutely not. As I said, you will be training to be exceptional. Weights are simply an implement to develop one aspect of a ninja's growth at the expense of others."

"Um, isn't being stronger a good thing?" Naruto couldn't comprehend how that could be bad, but Pain was the master and he was the student. He would do as he was told.

"It's true that weights apply extra strain to muscles while they are on and can assist in muscle growth and development. However, wearing excess weight often fools one's body into believing that it is heavier or bulkier than it actually is. When the weights are removed the body becomes confused. As a result, ninjas who train with weights often ruin their natural reflexes and reactions. They are forced into learning a rigid style of taijutsu due to their lack of adaptability. Against an enemy of similar or superior skill these ninja are doomed to lose, and badly. We will not limit your abilities in such a way. The speed and strength gained through weight training can be achieved through other training methods that do not create such limitations."

"I understand. Um, do all ninjas know this?"

"On some level they probably do, but not all ninjas have the capacity to achieve true greatness. They make up for this by focusing on one area of ability despite the risks. In truth, this strategy works well enough for the great majority of ninjas. Still, by taking such a stance they will always run the risk of being defeated by a ninja who exploits their weaknesses. I expect you to show no weaknesses, Naruto."

"Yes, Pain."

"Very good. The next branch of ninja arts is known as genjutsu. Most ninjas would describe genjutsu as techniques used to create an illusion against one's enemies in an effort to promote confusion and misdirection." Pain watched as Naruto nodded his head emphatically.

"This is wrong."

Naruto stopped his nodding and cocked his head to the side, awaiting an explanation. "I prefer to classify the branches by the method in which they are employed and not their effect. It makes them easier to understand and defeat in battle. Genjutsu, by my definition, refers to the school of abilities in which a ninja uses his own chakra to influence the chakra within the body of his target ninja in order to confuse or fool the sensory organs of the opponent. Allow me to demonstrate."

Naruto watched as Pain's hands came together and blurred quickly before drawing apart once again and settling into his lap. Naruto frowned, believing that nothing had happened, when Pain's voice spoke from behind him.

"This is a simple genjutsu that I have cast on you. To you it seems as though there are two of me within this room." The Pain behind Naruto walked to him and placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "You can feel this, yes?"

Naruto gasped in surprise when the Pain across the desk from him reached forward and grabbed his right hand. "You both feel real!"

"And yet only I truly exist," said the Pain still seated in the desk chair. The Pain behind Naruto moved around him and sat on the edge of the desk facing the boy. "I am only a figment of your imagination. If anyone else walked into this room right now they would see only you and the real me sitting silently."

"How do I stop genjutsu?"

The phantom Pain disappeared while the true version nodded. "It will be some time before I am able to teach you to dispel any but the simplest of illusions. Now, tell me what the difference is between my genjutsu and this illusion ninjutsu."

Naruto didn't see any hand movement this time, but thought that he may have just missed it. Standing next to Pain was another perfect copy of himself, who proceeded to walk around the desk and stand in front of Naruto. Naruto looked at it closely but couldn't see any difference from the cloaked man in the desk chair.

"Why don't I give you a hint?" The illusion Pain then leapt into the air around three feet and fell down to the floor gracefully. As he landed, Naruto's eyes widened in realization.

"He didn't make any noise!"

Illusion Pain nodded this time. "Touch him," came from across the desk.

Naruto leaned forward and gasped as his hand went through the illusion causing it to shimmer and disperse.

"As you can see, this jutsu is only meant to fool one sense – that of sight. It creates an illusion by lacing the air with chakra in order to form an incorporeal replica of the caster. Any disturbance in the chakra structure of the illusion will cause it to become unstable, dispelling the jutsu. This is known as the basic clone technique, and is generally one of the first that apprentice ninjas learn. While it is an illusion, I do not consider it a genjutsu because it does not act directly on the opponent's chakra - only on the air that the clone inhabits. Do you see the difference?"

"Yup, I think I get it. Genjutsu tricks your body into thinking something is real that isn't, but that clone was really there, it just wasn't what it looked like."

"Excellent. We can move on then to the final school of the ninja arts. Ninjutsu is by far the broadest school of the three and can be divided more thoroughly into smaller sub-categories. Elemental jutsus, such as the ones that we discussed earlier, can be considered one branch, while sealing techniques could be considered yet another branch."

"Sealing techniques… Is that what you were looking at yesterday? A seal? Where did it come from? Why do I have a seal on me?"

Pain paused for a moment and studied the boy across from him, who had now leaned forward and placed his small hands on the edge of the desk. He was practically coming off of his stool. Pain began his reply slowly and deliberately. "I have every intention of explaining it to you, but I feel that it would be prudent to wait until your training has progressed further. You are right to be curious though – that seal will become very important to you in the future and you will have to be taught about it extensively. At the moment you need not worry about it. There are other subjects that we must cover beforehand in order for me to properly explain it to you. Right now any focus on that seal will only serve as a distraction from your training."

Naruto decided that he could wait if Pain thought it was best. "Just please tell me as soon as you think you can. I don't like it when people keep things from me." Naruto continued in a small voice. "Like why nobody in Konoha liked me."

Pain narrowed his eyes briefly before replying. "Very well. I will tell you as soon as I believe you are ready, but for now, ninjutsu." Naruto straightened and wiped the melancholy look from his face.

"As I've already told you, ninjutsu is a very broad subject and covers all of the chakra manipulations that a ninja can perform by molding his internal chakra to affect either himself or creatures and objects outside of his body. In a sense, ninjutsu consists of all ninja abilities that do not fall within the scope of taijutsu and genjutsu."

"Um, how is ninjutsu different from taijutsu if both can work inside the body?"

"A good question. Taijutsu utilizes raw chakra to strengthen a ninja's physical form. In a sense it is rather unrefined. Internal ninjutsu can change the body's make up completely. You have seen Konan's paper abilities, correct?"

Naruto smiled and nodded. "Yeah, that was really cool."

"Konan has an excellent grasp of her yin/yang affinity – so much so that she can change various body parts into paper and allow them to operate independently of her natural form. Soon I expect that she will be able to turn into paper completely. As you can imagine, that would be an exceptionally useful ability for many reasons."

Naruto wrinkled up his nose in slight disgust. "So all of her clothes are actually made up of parts of her body?"

Pain smirked at the boy. "No, but they are made up of paper which she controls. Even a ninja as skilled as she is couldn't manipulate her body at all times to such an extent."

"Oh! What's a yin/yang affinity? Konan said that you had an earth affinity last night."

"Did she now? I suppose that's not technically incorrect. As far as affinities go, there are six in total. The five elements: water, earth, lightning, wind, and fire, as well as the yin/yang manipulation affinity make up the six. The five elements are considered the major affinities and every person has an affinity for one of these five elements. Some ninjas also have strong skill in the yin/yang affinity, which deals with manipulations outside of the elemental ones."

"So that means I have an elemental affinity. How do I know which one it is?"

"That will come later in your training. I should tell you though that most high-level ninjas train themselves in elements beyond their natural, primary affinity. By doing so they create secondary affinities that they can use in battle effectively. Any ninja can use basic skills of any element. However, to use powerful abilities efficiently a ninja must stick to those skills that are part of his affinity. Doing otherwise is wasteful and ineffective."

Naruto placed a hand over his mouth and furrowed his brow in deep concentration. "I think I get it. I'll find out my affinity later and then try to learn more."

"Yes." Pain stood from his seat and looked down upon his apprentice. "I think that's enough theory for today. I have work to do now. I will bring you dinner in a bit. If you feel up to it I would suggest practicing molding your chakra like you did earlier, but try focusing it to different parts of your body, hands first. That way you can turn the lights on and off. When you become tired you may make use of the library if you like. So long as you take care of my scrolls you will have access to it in your free time. Tomorrow I will begin assigning you reading and we will start your physical conditioning. Make sure you get plenty of sleep, I will be waking you early tomorrow."

"Alright Pain." Naruto hopped off the stool and headed towards the doorway before halting.

Pain smiled at his back. "Left. Sixth door."

The boy turned around and gave him wide grin. "Thanks a lot, Pain. For everything."

Pain hummed quietly to himself and made a decision. "Before you go, Naruto, I wanted to give you something." He pulled open the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a three-pronged kunai, the likes of which Naruto had never seen before in Konoha. "This is a very rare weapon that was created and used by the Fourth Hokage." Pain paused as the small boy's eyes widened and his mouth hung open in awe. "I thought you might like to have it since you were originally from Konoha. He's rather well-known there, is he not?" Pain enjoyed leading the blond on and sat back to observe his shocked expression. Naruto slowly walked forward and took the strange weapon from Pain's hand.

"R-really? You'd let me keep it? No one's ever given me anything like this before. Thank you so much!"

Pain nodded happily. The boy's demeanor was contagious. "Take care of it, Naruto."

"I will. Thanks again. This is so cool!"

With that the boy turned to leave his master to his notes, reverently holding the kunai to his chest as if it were some precious companion.

Pain was left alone with his thoughts. A kunai was certainly a better gift than a stuffed animal for a four and a half year old apprentice ninja, he was sure.

* * *

**A/N: **I'm not sure if I'll be doing endnotes too often, but here's one for you.

We've finally gotten to Rain Country and the story will start moving now. Expect a one to two year time skip next chapter, some training, some history, some revelations, and maybe some more character appearances (if we get that far).

I hope I didn't bore you with all of the technical explanation that Pain gave, but the man is meticulous if nothing else. Also, I'm sick of crappy clichés like gravity seals and the like. Where is that stuff in the manga?

My Naruto isn't going to have a million jutsus, much like in canon, but he will use his knowledge of the ninja arts to defeat his opponents instead of simply brute-forcing every situation. Don't worry, he will be strong, but as a member of a criminal organization he also has to be smart.

Again, reviews are appreciated and encouraged, especially if they contain _constructive_ criticisms.


	4. Sympathy For The Devil

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Posted: **9/17/08

**A/N:** So I got a review to last chapter asking a question about the spelling of Pain's name. And no, it's not spelled with an 'e.' For those of us who keep up with the manga it is fairly obvious that the name is derived directly from the English word pain - and that is in fact what the character's name is. The confusion arises from the first few chapters that he appears in where the translators saw his name written phonetically in Japanese (which translated directly to English does read Pein) and didn't know what to make of it. If you notice, nearly every translation uses the spelling Pain now, because his name literally is the English word pain. This is also confirmed by Databook 3, which just came out a few weeks ago.

This is Chapter 4, the chapter where the action really starts to take off. A year-and-a-half has passed since Naruto came to live with Pain and Konan and his training is well underway.

Enjoy!

**Chapter Title: **_Sympathy For The Devil_ by The Rolling Stones.

* * *

A six-year-old Naruto panted and sputtered against swift-flowing waters as he closed in on the one-hour mark of his daily swim.

Pain had suggested that as an alternative to weight training Naruto should consider swimming in order to build up his strength and stamina. He had failed to mention that the most difficult aspect of the training would simply be cycling fresh air through his young lungs. Naruto couldn't complain, though, despite Pain's occasional remarks about unnatural lung capacity and "restraint." It hadn't taken him long to realize that he rarely ran out of breath while doing his other training any longer.

Naruto had grown to love his daily swims, despite their rather murderous pace. He had found a narrow stretch of river that had carved between two high tree-littered cliffs. This spot served two advantages. First, the water flowed so quickly that Naruto had to cut a respectable pace simply in order to stay stationary in the river while swimming against the current. Second, the high cliffs and even higher treetops served to protect Naruto from any occasional lightning strikes that found their way down from the ever-raining skies.

Konan had told him once that the country was weeping in sorrow for the countless dead that had met their end on the floodplains of Ame. Naruto wasn't sure if she really believed that or not.

Naruto rarely thought about Konoha any longer. His time spent among the leaves seemed like a distant dream from another lifetime. One thing he did reluctantly pine for were the starry night skies that had helped calm him and find sleep after the especially lonely or cruel days in the village. Now, though, the dark skies and dancing lightning that Naruto had become accustomed to held their own special beauty.

He continued his freestyle stroke and cleared his mind of distractions – focusing on his own breathing and the sound of pattering rain hitting the river and drumming on his ears through the water around him. It was a calming distraction that he was often thankful for. Pain made sure that he took in so much on a daily basis – both in training and from the vast library the man had accumulated – that the boy found he sometimes needed to be able to simply clear is often scattered mind.

"Naruto."

He was brought out of his pseudo-trance by a calm voice speaking from right over his shoulder – in the middle of the river. In his shock he sucked in a good amount of water and began coughing loudly while flailing a bit as the current finally began taking him away. His misfortune was only met by a quiet, melodious laughing.

After a moment spent recovering whilst drifting downstream, Naruto turned to glare at the woman who had interrupted him. He placed his right palm firmly on the water's surface and pulled himself from the river to stand atop its surface as though he were standing on a sheet of glass.

"Don't do that Konan. One of these times I'm going to choke to death because of you." The blue-haired woman floated impossibly above the water's surface grinning at him mischievously. Just below where her waist should have met her legs her body and ever-present black cloak seemed to end in thick stacks of paper that blended seamlessly with the rest of her body.

Ever since she had improved her body manipulation technique to the point where she could turn herself completely into origami shapes only a few months ago, she had taken to sneaking up on Naruto at all times of the day. Though she could not split completely out in the rain because her individual paper sections were buffeted too violently by the downpour, she could easily use her less complex manipulations – such as the ability to fly that she was utilizing now. She obviously hadn't wanted Naruto to hear her walking up to him on the water's surface.

"I was almost done. Couldn't you have waited ten minutes?"

Konan's smirk fell off of her face before adopting a more serious countenance. "We have a mission."

Naruto's face formed into a pout. "You and Pain always have missions. When are you going to let me take care of myself out here? The cave is only five minutes away. I don't need a babysitter."

"You do until you show that you're ready to defend yourself from other ninjas. And I meant we all have a mission, the three of us." Naruto's eyes widened at that. "Pain wants us back at the cave right away for a briefing."

A smile stretched across Naruto's face and he took off running across the river's surface and straight up the nearby cliff face. "Bet I can beat you back!"

With that he was gone.

* * *

"I need you to kill someone for me."

Naruto gulped at that. Intellectually he knew this day would come from the day he had met Konan. Unfortunately – or fortunately as the case may be - his rather small and sheltered environment had allowed him to avoid thinking about it. Pain and Konan were the only people he'd had any contact with since coming to Rain Country, after all.

Pain studied Naruto closely to judge the boy's reaction. The child had come far since arriving with them and his hopes were high that the lost Namikaze would exceed his expectations.

That had become increasingly more important since Pain was now fairly certain that he would never be able to undo the Fourth Hokage's seal. Weekly examinations of the seal showed that it was most likely too complex to unravel without destroying the boy and fox both. Then there was the problem with the fact that the fox itself wasn't even all there. How Namikaze Minato had managed that was a puzzle that Pain had all but given up hope of solving.

The Kyuubi's power would never be Pain's. It was Namikaze's now. So Pain had to adjust his plans accordingly. Everything would have to be handled… delicately.

"Who?"

Pain looked across his desk at Naruto and Konan who stood before him looking a bit grim. "Technically it doesn't matter who. You have reached the midpoint of your allotted training period and it's time you became a true shinobi. Today simply poses an ample opportunity to accomplish this."

Naruto blinked and nodded. This was another test.

"This morning eight chakra signatures entered our borders from the north and began patrols within our territory, most likely attempting to seek out our primary encampments. Obviously, we cannot allow Hanzou to acquire this information now or ever. We three will go eliminate the group before they can learn anything of value."

Naruto glanced at Konan who was stoically absorbing Pain's words before turning back to Pain and nodding again. He knew that Pain and Konan led an actual army – though he had never seen it. Their camps were a good distance from the cave - absolutely no one knew where Pain and Konan lived besides Naruto. Normally they would be dispatched to eliminate these intruders, but Pain had apparently decided that Naruto needed to make this step forward in his career.

"Go get dressed and gather your equipment. Meet back here in five minutes."

Naruto knew that he was the one being spoken to. He was still only wearing the shorts that he swam in. "Right away."

* * *

The rain had stopped for the last few minutes. Naruto wasn't sure how, but it had given Konan an opening to use her jutsu in order to scout the northern areas of their territory. The three of them met – two stood, one floated – on a thick branch in the canopy of the dense wet forests that grew on the foothills of Rain Country. Most of the country consisted of a massive, empty floodplain surrounded by mountains and dense forests. Here in the south there were tall, rocky mountains and plenty of tree cover – perfect for hiding a rebel army.

"Six have set up an encampment in a clearing to the northeast – about ten minutes at a hard pace." She had glanced at Naruto during the last part and received a nod in return.

"Then two are off performing a patrol. You must keep watch for them in case they return."

Konan nodded in response as more paper broke off from her form and dispersed into the trees.

Pain turned to Naruto and sized him up one more time. Even after over a year of seeing the man every day, something about his piercing gaze still unnerved the boy. It was too intense. "Are you ready?"

Naruto paused for a moment and nodded forcefully. "Yes."

"You are lying." Pain did that sometimes. Naruto had never had reason or motivation to lie to Pain over anything important or damning, but the man could always see through Naruto's falsities. In time it would lead Naruto to swear off lying outright altogether – instead settling for half-truths and misdirection. For now, however, Naruto had to come out with the truth.

"I'm nervous. And… and a little scared."

Pain once again studied Naruto for a moment too long, causing the child to avert his eyes and look toward the ground, ashamed.

"Good."

Naruto's head snapped back up in surprise.

"Become too sure of your own abilities and they will fail you. Your nerves keep you attentive and aware of your own vulnerability. Konan and I will make the first assault. You must follow behind us and finish off any who survive our preliminary strike. I do not expect you to fight with these ninja evenly. You are simply supplementary."

Pain paused for a moment and Konan chose this time to speak. "Remember that these men are professionals who will try to protect themselves and kill you if the opportunity arises. They are your enemies and should be treated as such. Do not hesitate to kill them or you risk your own death."

"I understand."

Pain turned to face the northeast and made ready to jump away. "Wait for our attack and then come behind us. You will know when." Then he was gone with Konan right behind him.

Naruto waited a few moments before setting off himself. He wanted to make sure that he was not too far behind his companions but was also wary of stumbling into the enemy encampment if he pushed forward too quickly. There was no way that he could overtake them in a footrace, but they may stop to observe the enemy position before attacking. They both had drilled into Naruto's mind the importance of strategy and tactics when engaging enemies.

It had been about eight minutes by Naruto's count when the forest was ripped open by a massive explosion only about three miles away from Naruto's position. He raced as quickly as possible as he could to the area, only to find a scene of untold devastation. This area of the forest had been completely uprooted – the fallen trees had been violently stripped of their leaves and smaller branches. Some had even been blown straight through the trunks of other, still-standing trees across the crater before him. All of it was on fire. The clearing that he had been told of was completely gone – the swath of destruction here stretched more than sixty feet across and nearly a hundred feet long.

Naruto paused to take in the scene and not for the first time wondered at just how powerful his minders truly were. This level of destruction was both amazing and terrifying to behold.

He shook himself from his state of awe. He had a job to do. Keeping to the still-intact trees around the edge of the crater, Naruto scouted the area for bodies. There should be six, he recalled.

The first item of interest that he stumbled upon was not a body. Not a whole one, at least. It was what looked to Naruto like an arm – severed at the shoulder – but it was difficult to tell since much of the skin and flesh had been burned and ripped from the limb.

That's when the smell of burning flesh first hit him and he was forced to choke back the bile that threatened to rise up in his throat. He needed to get a hold of himself. To keep looking.

He found the rest of the body not on the ground, but spread through a nearby burning tree. The explosion had torn the man's – he thought it was a man – torso in half and had scattered the ninja's entrails about like holiday streamers. It was truly ghastly, but at least the man was dead.

The next one hadn't been so lucky.

He was missing a leg, three fingers on his left hand, an eye, an ear, and most of his scalp. He would have succumbed to his wounds in minutes, but Naruto knew he had to do his duty and kill the man. It was a mission, after all.

The constant moaning coming from the poor soul was bad, but what was worse was the one good eye that followed Naruto as he landed in front of the dying soldier. It would haunt the boy for years – that eye that didn't once blink, didn't once look away from the bright blue eyes of Naruto even as the child reached out with his kunai and slit the man's throat.

He killed a man, but it wasn't so bad. The ninja had already been on his way to the Death God. Naruto had just sped him along. It was an act of mercy, really.

Naruto moved away from the corpse in search of his next target.

* * *

Konan watched covertly as Naruto traversed the battlefield. She already knew exactly where the six ninjas had fallen. Three had been torn to shreds in the explosion. They had been sitting in the middle of their small camp conversing with one another when Pain and Konan had struck with a wind and fire fusion attack. She had been a bit worried that Pain had overdone it with his wind strike and that there would be no survivors for Naruto to find, but her fears were unfounded. The horrible gore was probably for the best. Most ninja battles didn't get this ugly and Naruto would most likely not see anything much worse – at least not for a long, long time.

She hoped.

The fourth man – the one that Naruto had just silenced – had been in one of the tents during their attack. His may have been the worst end of them all since he had been alive long enough to experience it. Naruto had acquitted himself well, though, and now the man was dead.

Naruto was approaching the last two bodies. They had been patrolling the outskirts of the camp and were on the far side of the clearing from Pain and Konan when their jutsu hit. While this would normally have been fortuitous for them, in this case it meant that they were in the way of countless pieces of wooden shrapnel in the form of chips, splinters, and in some cases whole branches.

Their bodies were mostly intact. One had fallen on top of the other and both bodies lay still. The top body had been mostly protected from harm by the thick tan flak jacket he wore, but fate had been unkind and a small piece of wood had caught him in the throat just beneath the bulky re-breather that he wore. By the looks of it, the shard had split his throat open and the man had bled to death on his comrade.

The second body – the one that had fallen beneath his partner's - still had a shard of wood sticking out of its left arm at the bicep that drew a decent amount of blood. The man's right leg had also been broken if the unnatural position it lay in was any indicator. Konan couldn't see any other wounds on the body from any of her many vantage points. She did notice, however, that the body was playing dead.

A hand on her shoulder stopped her from moving forward to assist Naruto. She turned quickly to see her friend standing beside her and watching their young companion intently. She was uncomfortable with the idea of leaving Naruto to his own devices. That man was at least a chuunin. She deferred to Pain on this matter though – he had taken Naruto on as his apprentice at her request and he always had a plan.

She just hoped his decision wouldn't end up a poor one.

* * *

Naruto came upon bodies three and four at the edge of the blast crater. They looked to have survived the attack much more intact than their comrades. The top one of the two looked dead, but he could be faking - blood could be faked.

Naruto threw the still-bloody kunai in his hand at the top body. It pierced his throat, but no more blood rushed and there was no reaction. The man was dead.

Something about the position of the second man made him nervous. Maybe his mind was playing tricks on him, but Naruto chose to proceed cautiously. Something felt wrong.

Drawing another kunai from the pouch on the back of his waist, Naruto approached the two bodies. He was only five feet away when the top body came flying at him, knocking him back and off-balance. Naruto barely had time to see the living ninja throw his injured body towards him behind his deceased partner's, kunai in hand.

Naruto's own kunai came up to block the attack, but the superior strength of the Rain ninja overpowered the boy's hasty defense and batted the boy's kunai away. Naruto could do nothing but raise his left arm in defense as the larger man's kunai came back toward's his head.

The kunai bit deeply into Naruto's forearm. He was sure that he could feel it scraping bone. Despite the larger ninja's success, his injured leg set him off balance as he placed weight on it. At the same time, Naruto spun his body away from his enemy out of reflex thanks to the horrible pain in his arm.

With his back exposed, Naruto knew he was done for. His injured arm was cradled pitifully against his chest and he struggled to bite back the pain. He had screwed up and was going to die now.

But he didn't want to die. He was going to be a great ninja.

He did the only thing he could think of.

* * *

The Rain ninja was in dire straights, he knew. The brat that had come to finish him off wasn't the only rebel around here. He had to kill the brat quickly and go.

As a jounin of the Village Hidden in the Rain he didn't believe the stories that the captured rebels told before they were executed. They were brainwashed criminals - foolish vigilantes that wished to overthrow Lord Hanzou's rule.

But for a moment there, when that enormous firestorm had struck their camp and sent him flying into the woods, he wondered if perhaps God really had come to smite him.

It wasn't worth wasting his thoughts on. He was a jounin and he was in trouble. He was in pain. He had lost a lot of blood. He couldn't stand straight. He couldn't think straight.

He had wounded the small child in front of him – a deep cut to the arm. The boy was obviously not experienced in actual combat considering his age and reactions. Despite the deep strike he had landed, the pain and damage to his leg forced him to pause in his assault – if only for a moment.

As he steadied himself and readied his next strike – one that would sever the boy's spine at the neck – he was shocked and stunned to witness the wounded child disappear into a cloud of smoke.

It was a clone. He could have kicked himself for his lack of attentiveness. He spun around to scan for more enemies to come face to face with the uninjured boy not five feet from him – kunai drawn and charging at a full sprint.

But he was a jounin and no brat was going to kill him today. He easily broke the boy's guard and gave a small grin as the boy impaled himself on the older ninja's kunai.

He knew something was wrong when neither the boy's expression nor his momentum changed. Then the boy shimmered into nothingness.

The Rain jounin didn't have time to contemplate his mistake before his own spinal column was cleaved in two at the neck by a six-year-old boy named Naruto.

* * *

Naruto panted as the adrenaline continued to burn through his veins. That bastard had tried to kill him.

He knew that he was lucky to be alive – lucky that the man had been so disoriented. He also knew that he would never doubt his instincts in the future – not for a second. They had saved his life.

Someone landed lightly behind him and he turned to find yet another Rain ninja. Though most of the man's face was covered by the standard Rain re-breather, Naruto knew from his murderous eyes that he had witnessed his comrade's demise. The ninja charged while drawing a kunai of his own. Naruto couldn't beat this one. He was entirely uninjured. Must have been one of the two that had been on patrol.

Naruto raised his own kunai before him prepared to go out fighting, but the gesture was unnecessary.

The Rain ninja's furious eyes shifted to shocked and confused as a metal ring sporting the kanji for "nothingness" was pressed into his exposed throat, followed by the rest of the black-painted fingers of Pain's right hand. The Rain ninja's momentum changed in mid-air and he was slammed into the base of a nearby tree trunk with the offending hand still wrapped around his neck.

Something broke when the man hit the tree – and it wasn't just the bark and wood that shattered at the impact. Pain drew his hand back and rammed it into the man's throat, crushing his windpipe. Something black slipped out of the sleeve of his robe and pierced the Rain ninja's chest just over his heart. It all happened so quickly that Naruto wondered if he had dreamed it, but the lifeless eyes of the ninja as he slumped to the ground and the red blossoming over the wound confirmed that Pain had indeed shoved something through the man's heart.

Pain slowly turned to look over to Naruto's right. Dazed as he was, the boy followed the eyes of his master to meet the strange sight of a floating Konan impaling what appeared to be a mummy with a white spear. The paper making up the spear and the mummy's wrappings quickly retreated to reform Konan's legs and revealed another Rain ninja impaled through the chest. The body slumped lifelessly to the ground and Konan walked over to join them.

"Not bad."

Naruto thought he had heard Pain speak through the slight stupor he was experiencing. The adrenaline was coming down now and his arm hurt like someone was holding a hot iron to his flesh. He had lost a fair bit of blood. "What?"

Pain turned to look Naruto in the eye. "I said not bad. You acquitted yourself quite nicely. How did you know that the man was faking death?"

Naruto tried to shake the blinking spots out of his eyes. He was feeling a bit lightheaded. "I had a bad feeling. I think I'm going to sit down." Rather than sit, he slumped to the wet, spongy forest floor and blinked a bit stupidly.

"He's lost a lot of blood. I'll bandage him up."

"Hm, let's see the wound then." Pain quickly and carefully ripped the bloodied gray sleeve from Naruto's shirt and knelt down to inspect the gash on Naruto's forearm.

"It's deeper than I thought. We need to tie it up quickly."

Pain remained silent as he stared at the wound with his mercury eyes. "It's healing already. Kyuubi…" His voice was so low that Naruto and Konan barely caught it. Pain shook his head and nodded to Konan. She bent down and began wrapping the wound in gauze while some of her paper pressed tightly around Naruto's upper arm to lessen the blood flow.

Naruto was drifting off from a combination of blood loss and fatigue. That just wouldn't do. "Does it hurt?"

Naruto looked at Pain drowsily, but didn't answer.

Pain frowned a bit and grabbed Naruto by his right shoulder – the one connected to his uninjured arm. The boy wasn't in any real danger but it would be best for all three of them if he stayed awake. "Does your arm hurt?"

"A little… it's dull… numb."

"What did you mean you had a bad feeling about that ninja?"

"Felt wrong… in my gut."

"That's why you made the clone before you went too close to him? Instinct?"

"Yeah… instinct. Wouldna worked if he wasn't so beat up. Got lucky."

"Transforming into yourself to create a smokescreen was rather brilliant, I must say. You made him think the real you was some sort of clone dispersing. You're correct though, it wouldn't have worked if he hadn't been so delirious." Pain stood up as Konan finished. "We'll have to work on your reflexes though. Can't have you turning your back to the enemy every time you get cut, even though it let you form hand seals without being seen."

Konan lifted Naruto onto her back and the three of them set off back to their home without another word. Konan let Naruto sleep most of the way.

They left the bodies for the birds. Let whoever stumbles across them wonder.

There was much to be done before tomorrow.

* * *

Naruto sat on a stool at the front of Pain's study frowning rather spectacularly at a scroll Pain had given him to read. He had been forced to forgo his training today because of the wound he had received the day before in the fight with the Rain ninjas despite the fact that his arm had been completely healed – bar a few small aches – when he awoke that morning. Naruto normally loved to read and learn whatever Pain was willing to teach him - as well as anything else that sparked Naruto's curiosity in the library - but the contents of this scroll in particular gave Naruto quite a bit of unpleasantness to ponder.

At the moment that unpleasantness translated to a great deal of fidgeting. "This means…"

"Finish reading the scroll before you ask me any questions, Naruto. I imagine that you have determined that what it contains is rather important, especially to you."

Naruto sent an angry glare at Pain for that. The man didn't even look up from whatever it was he was working on today. He had miles and miles of notes in the scrolls he kept from what Naruto could tell. Who knew what he was doing.

An hour later Naruto was fuming. "I'm done. Now…"

"What is a bijuu?"

Naruto growled. "Something I have inside of me?"

Pain looked up and raised an eyebrow. "You are angry with me because of this? I did not put it there. Now, what is the general definition of a bijuu?"

"Why do I…"

"Naruto." Pain's voice was deathly cold. He rarely if ever expressed any sort of emotion, but in this case he made his displeasure towards Naruto's insubordination crystal clear. "Answer my question."

Naruto was too angry to cower, but his better judgment won out and he drew deep breath before beginning. "A bijuu is a tailed beast. They are malicious, sentient formations of pure chakra that take on the likenesses of various animals and are known as avatars of destruction. No one knows how they were formed or how long they have existed, but they are known as great sources of power in the world. They number nine – each with a corresponding number of tails. One for the Ichibi. Two for the Nibi. Three for the Sanbi…"

"Very good." Pain rose from his chair and moved around his desk to lean back on the piece of furniture – a favorite spot of his for his lessons with Naruto. "Now, what is a jinchuuriki?" He spoke again before Naruto could open his mouth. "The _general _definition, please."

"A jinchuuriki is a human sacrifice that has a bijuu sealed within him at the time of his birth. Theoretically a jinchuuriki can learn to harness the power of the bijuu it harbors in battle as a source of great power. Only a newborn child can be used for this process because a newborn's chakra coils are still undeveloped and can therefore adapt to the massive influx of chakra associated with having a chakra monster exist within him."

"What is the purpose of creating a jinchuuriki?"

Naruto snorted. "To create a living weapon out of an innocent baby, obviously."

Pain paused a moment to study Naruto – as he was wont to do. The words rolled slowly off of his lips when he spoke and Naruto could tell that he was reaching the end of his tolerance for Naruto's attitude. "Obviously. Is there any other reason that a person might create a jinchuuriki that you could think of?"

"Some people like tormenting small children?"

Pain stood up to walk back to his seat. "I don't appreciate you wasting my time with childish antics. Return when you can act like a rational person."

Naruto was angry, yes, but he had never pushed Pain this far before. And he felt ashamed. As he lowered his head to stare at his lap he was surprised to feel something warm splash down on his hands. He hadn't noticed he was crying. He hadn't done that since coming to Rain Country. Wiping his face with his sleeve he looked up to try to apologize only to find that Pain had remained standing in front of his desk looking at Naruto intently.

Naruto looked away quickly. When he spoke, it was in a quiet voice that seemed foreign to him. "Why me?"

"Do you really think you are ready to know?"

"I… I'm sorry about just now. This is why everyone hated me in Konoha, right? Why would anyone do this to me?"

"Perhaps we should return to a previous question. Why would anyone create a jinchuuriki if not to create a weapon?"

Naruto rubbed his face with his sleeve again. He was still crying. Damn. "I don't know."

"Have you guessed which bijuu is within you?"

"I'm not sure. I don't know where they are or who has them. It could be any of them, right?"

"I believe that the story of the Fourth Hokage is well known in Konoha, is it not?"

"Of course. He killed the Kyuubi and saved the village."

Pain raised an eyebrow at that. "Killed? The Kyuubi? I think not. You did read the scroll didn't you? I will tell you now that the Kyuubi is not only the strongest of the nine but also dwarfs the others in terms of sheer power. What happens when a bijuu is defeated?"

"Only the weaker ones have ever been defeated in battle and not simply sealed, but they always come back after a while. Does that mean they can't die?"

"They are simply formations of chakra. They are not alive in the same way that we are. They have no flesh and blood form. Their chakra is so great that they are self-sustaining entities. They very well may be truly immortal."

"Then the Fourth couldn't have killed him. Are you saying he sealed him in me? How do you know?"

"You were born in Konoha on the day of the Kyuubi's attack. You did know that your birthday is October 10th, did you not? It isn't common knowledge to most."

Naruto's tears just wouldn't stop. "I didn't know that. No one ever told me." He drew a shaky breath. "So he made me into a jinchuuriki so that the village would be saved. Then why did everyone hate me?"

"Because they were stupid and angry. The Fourth Hokage was worshipped as a great hero in Konoha even before his death. He gave his life to seal away the monster that killed their friends and family. The pain that loss caused had to have an outlet and that outlet became you. It isn't uncommon for jinchuuriki to be seen as dangerous monsters causing them to become outcasts in society. Forcing such a massive and terrible power upon a newborn child can lead to severe consequences for all involved. The bijuu do not appreciate their imprisonment and sometimes will twist and warp the jinchuuriki's psyche into something untenable."

"The bijuu can speak to the jinchuuriki? Then why hasn't the Kyuubi spoken to me? He's supposed to be evil!"

"We will discuss that after your questions are answered. Do you have any more?"

Naruto took a moment to collect himself. He needed to know. "Why me?"

Pain's eyes drifted away from Naruto, lost in thought, before the man gave a small nod to no one. "Konan and I believe that the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, was most likely your father. I will show you a picture of him later, but you look almost identical. It would be the simplest and most logical explanation."

Naruto's gaze returned to his hands folded in his lap and the tears seemed to come even faster. He had always dreamed that one day his parents would come to get him when he lived in Konoha – just like Konan had. He had always dreamed that he would have a big family with brothers and sisters, a mother and father, and that they would love him. "He did this to me even though I was his son? Didn't he care about me?"

"Don't think little of him for what he did. It was no doubt the most difficult choice of his life to seal the Kyuubi into you. If he had sealed it into no one you would have died along with the rest of the villagers. He could not ask the villagers to give up what he would not." Pain stood up and turned to examine his paper-littered desktop. He began sifting through the sheets as if looking for something. "Not just anyone can contain the power of a bijuu – and certainly not that of the Kyuubi. Namikaze Minato was no doubt one of the strongest shinobi to ever live and his blood flows within you. He chose you because you were the best option. In any case, the seal he placed on you proves his love for you."

With a rather silly flourish he swept a sheet of paper off of the desk and handed it to Naruto, who quickly wiped his teary hands on his pants and took the sheet. Naruto appreciated the stoic man's antics, slight as they were. "This is the seal that holds the Kyuubi dormant within you. I must confess that it is the most complex fuuinjutsu I have ever seen or heard of."

Naruto looked up from the intricate seal drawn in simple pencil on the paper.

"It is unlike any other jinchuuriki seal in existence. I am certain that he designed it specifically for you – to help you achieve your goals." Pain leaned back on his desk adopting a thoughtful pose. "The trouble is that I can't determine just what it is that this seal is supposed to do. Unless I see the original schematics it's unlikely that I can determine its purpose. The fact of the matter is that the seal is slowly breaking down."

Naruto almost panicked. "But then Kyuubi will get out!"

Pain cocked his head to the side in thought – a strange expression for him. "Maybe yes, maybe no. Your father did something to the Kyuubi before he sealed it within you that may change the equation. What I can tell you is that the breaking down of the seal is a gradual process and that it was meant to occur. Whatever happens when the seal is damaged enough is only known by Namikaze."

Naruto scrunched his face up at the name. His tears had stopped flowing down his red and puffy face during Pain's explanation. "Why am I called Uzumaki if my father was Namikaze?"

"To protect you from his enemies of course. Why, if anti-Konoha elements learned that you were both a powerful jinchuuriki and the son of their enemy's greatest hero who knows what they might do? Maybe kill you."

"Maybe kidnap me?"

A small grin spread across Pain's face. "Who's to say?"

"Are you anti-Konoha then?"

Pain's grin faded and his face shifted back to its usual expressionless façade. "That's a question better left for another day. The short answer is no, I don't have a problem with Konoha specifically. My issues lie with the way of the world in general. There's too much unhappiness. Too much war."

Naruto nodded. He liked Pain and Konan quite a lot, but understood that as ninjas he may not like what they were doing. He'd let his questions rest for now.

"Back to the seal and the reason the Kyuubi has not contacted you. Your father took special precautions to prevent the Kyuubi from manipulating you before you were old enough to, hopefully, resist its machinations. He also blocked nearly all of its chakra from you. That is the reason why you have never drawn on any significant amount of it as of yet. A large influx of the Kyuubi's tainted chakra could overwhelm your own chakra – especially if you had not been training to increase your chakra capacity. With your father's safeguards in place, even if you had remained a civilian your entire life Kyuubi should not have been able to influence you unduly without your consent. This is one of the reasons why I say your father's love for you is shown in the seal he made. He planned for every contingency."

Naruto smiled at the thought of the Fourth Hokage – his father! – putting so much effort into keeping him safe.

"The fact of the matter, though, is that you started your ninja training much earlier than he had any right to expect. As a result your chakra reserves are almost certainly higher than any other child your age in the world as a combination of your training, genetics, and Kyuubi's presence. I would like to accelerate the process of breaking the blocks on your father's seal so that you can access Kyuubi's power earlier." The look of horror on Naruto's face caused Pain to continue quickly. "There is a good reason for this. At the rate the blocks on the seal are deteriorating it will take at least another six years before they fall and the seal begins working in earnest. Breaking these blocks will _not_ damage the seal itself."

Naruto's expression had calmed a bit, but he still did not look happy about the prospect. "When the seal begins its work your chakra levels will rise quite abruptly. Frankly, your chakra control will disappear and you'll have to start all over again. The sooner this process is accomplished the sooner you can grow accustomed to your new chakra levels and the sooner your body can adapt to using the Kyuubi's chakra. Your ninja career will have to be put on hold when the blocks break and I believe it would be better if that occurred sooner rather than later."

"Could anything bad happen?"

"I don't believe so. As it is now, the blocks will break down slowly and your chakra will gradually grow until the final break where there will be a large surge. By breaking them now the surge will be larger and therefore it may be a bit more stressful on your body. I'm confident, however, that the seal will protect you from any truly harmful backlash. As I've said, you already have more chakra than most ninja twice your age. My main concern is that the Kyuubi will be able to contact you."

This prospect frightened Naruto quite a bit. He had no intention of ever talking to the horrible monster that had killed so many – including his own father.

"As I've told you, this process is inevitable. The only question is if you think you are able to ignore its manipulations or not. I do not believe that it will be able to converse with you on a regular basis. Only in times of strife or strong emotion will the two of you speak."

Naruto nodded.

"I am confident that you are ready to shoulder such a responsibility. You have handled yourself well this last year with us. I would like to go ahead and perform this procedure, but the final decision must be yours as the Kyuubi's warden."

Naruto steeled himself before responding. "Alright, I'll do it. I can't afford to be wasting time if I want to be the greatest ninja ever."

Pain nodded and turned to his desk. He began to roll up scrolls and stack papers before carrying them to the shelves that surrounded the room.

"Um, we're doing this on your desk?"

Pain turned around to face Naruto. "Yes."

Naruto nodded slowly. "We, uh, don't need some big sealing circle or something?"

Pain continued shuffling the papers together. "We're only breaking some superficial blocks. It's a simple process."

"Oh. Okay then."

Naruto was brought out of his puzzlement by the door to the study opening. Naruto expected to find Konan walking in, and she was, but behind a rather large man dressed entirely in black. Naruto nearly panicked at a stranger's presence in their home. It had never happened before.

"It's alright Naruto. He's only here to observe." Naruto looked back at Pain but his focus quickly returned to the stranger. Naruto hadn't seen many fat ninjas before. There were a few in Konoha – he knew – but he mostly thought of ninjas as fit and trim warriors. This one was not. His strange physique was only eclipsed in weirdness by the fact that he was completely covered in black cloth from head to toe. The only parts of the man's body that were exposed were his two hands. The fingernails were painted black – just like Pain's and Konan's – so he assumed he was a subordinate or ally of some kind. Naruto did wonder how the man was expected to observe with his eyes covered in cloth, but he supposed that it was probably thin enough that he could see through it.

"Naruto."

The boy turned back to Pain, who was gesturing towards the desk. Naruto walked over and easily hopped up onto it – this time under his own power – and removed his shirt. As he lay back on the hard surface a question popped into his mind after recalling many uncomfortable examinations of his seal.

"Is this going to hurt?"

Pain took on a thoughtful expression before reaching down and pinching a nerve on Naruto's neck. The boy blacked out like a switch had been thrown.

"No."

* * *

Naruto exited the training cavern with his spirits high. He had finally managed to regain the ability to walk all the way to the cavern's ceiling up its slick walls. A perfect doppelganger of himself met him in their makeshift kitchen. The imposter passed him a plate of slightly burnt fish before shrugging and disappearing in a puff of smoke. Naruto would just have to choke it down.

Ever since Pain had cleared the blocks from his seal two weeks prior Naruto had been afflicted by horrible chakra control that was reminiscent of when his training had first begun. This was almost worse though. He was relearning the basic skills at an even slower pace than the first time around. It took him nearly all of the first week to simply relearn the transformation and replacement jutsus that academy students were often taught. Even worse, he was entirely incapable of creating a clone like the one that had saved his life against the Rain ninja.

After listening to Naruto complain for nearly an entire afternoon and evening, Pain had decided he'd had enough and taught Naruto the advanced Shadow Clone technique. It used a ridiculously large amount of chakra and was therefore perfect for Naruto. Despite learning the jutsu in only a few hours, he was forced to spend all of the next day memorizing and reciting the advantages and drawbacks of the jutsu – which was classified as jounin level.

The jutsu was incredibly dangerous by its very nature. Like other clone jutsus, the number of clones that a ninja is capable of forming is dependent on the user's level of chakra. What set the shadow clone apart was that instead of using a static amount of chakra to form a clone, it split the ninja's entire chakra pool evenly between the clones and the user. Making just one shadow clone meant that the ninja lost access to half of his total chakra pool.

There was a good reason for this, though. Not all of that chakra was used in the formation of the clone – in fact relatively little was. The remaining chakra allowed the clone to use the full range of jutsus that the original could. The shadow clone would only be destroyed when its chakra ran out or its chakra matrix was interrupted by outside forces – usually an attack. The shadow clone was a substantial clone and had the same physical characteristics of its creator. It felt, looked, and acted like the original in every way. It even formed a chakra circulatory system that mimicked that of the user.

Best of all – in Naruto's opinion – was the fact that when the clone was dispersed - either because all of its chakra had been depleted or because its matrix had been destroyed - the user and all of the remaining clones recovered the unused chakra from the dispersed clone. What was particularly useful about the shadow clone was that with this chakra came all of the memories and experiences that the destroyed clone had obtained. If a clone read a book and then dispersed it would be as though Naruto himself had read the book. The possibilities for learning and even training were endless.

As excited as Naruto was about learning the Shadow Clone jutsu, he was equally baffled by Pain's insistence that Naruto now hunt and cook for himself with the abilities this new jutsu imparted to him.

He still sucked at cooking. He couldn't wait to be able to water walk again. It would help him quite a lot when it came to fishing for food every day. He liked fish well enough and they were much easier to come by than the other wildlife in the area – though Naruto was sure he'd be testing his mettle against new critters in no time.

Finishing off his less than appetizing dish Naruto headed towards Pain's study to inform him of his progress and to get his assigned reading. Pain liked to set out lessons in the early evenings to help Naruto cool down from a day of training and to make sure that he was knowledgeable about ninja abilities and the world at large. Some of it was boring, but Naruto supposed that if he wanted to become the greatest ninja of all time he should probably start by learning about other great ninjas.

He didn't bother knocking on Pain's door any longer. The man could probably hear him coming from the other side of the complex and never minded the interruptions. The door wasn't even half open when Naruto started talking. "I finally made it back to the ceiling. I think using some shadow clones helped speed it up a bit. I would make two and replace them every five minutes and I think it helped…"

He stopped when he noticed that, for the second time in two weeks, an unfamiliar figure was standing in Pain's study. This one could be described as even more odd than the fat man before. He was slim and about as tall as Pain with spiky black hair that fell down to the middle of his back. He wore standard shinobi sandals that led to wrappings that extended halfway up his calves. There they met loose, black pants that carried up to an equally loose black top under which Naruto could see a tight shirt covering the man's neck up to the base of his jaw. Most puzzling of all was the striking, oval mask that completely covered the man's face and was held in place by a thick black band around the back of his head. The mask was a bright orange with black tendrils that seemed to reach from the right side of the mask to the left where they converged around the mask's only eyehole. On his left hip hung a long katana with an ivory sheath.

Naruto had no idea what to make of him.

Pain and the masked man had been staring silently at Naruto even as he entered the room. The mystery man turned back to Pain after a moment as if expecting a response to the intrusion.

"That's excellent news, Naruto. Return to your room and I'll come for you after this meeting is over."

"Naruto…" The masked man spoke for the first time while slowly turning his head back to view the boy.

Naruto found the strange figure's voice entirely unremarkable and continued to study the man even as he felt his inquisitive look returned.

Then Naruto died.

Or at least that's the first thing he could think of to describe the sensation. It was as if he was being suffocated – squeezed in a vice – except from all sides and all at once. The pressure was unbearable, but even worse was the feeling of hatred – of absolute loathing – that he was experiencing. All of the glares he could remember from back in Konoha combined were nothing compared to this. The world wanted him to die – to disappear – and Naruto wanted nothing more than to oblige it.

He felt himself slipping into darkness. He couldn't take this anymore. He just wanted it to end.

_Madara! Calm yourself…_

* * *

Naruto wasn't sure how long he was out for, but he knew immediately that something was wrong.

He was sitting on a cold stone floor in what felt like half an inch of stale water. It soaked his pants and caused him to shiver slightly. Even so, he didn't feel he had the strength to stand back up.

As his eyes opened he panicked when he saw that the masked man was standing over him. He pushed himself away frantically with his hands, but only succeeded in backing into a cold, concrete wall only a few feet from where he had first started. He was still in the puddle. He was cold. He was scared.

The man turned away and slowly padded off across the stone floor – which Naruto now saw was truly immense. Even with the dim, eerie lighting that seemed to emanate from nowhere he could see that the room he was in – for that is what it was – was massive. The wall behind him stretched out almost to the limits of his vision. To the left he could barely make out another blank wall with a small hallway leading off of it – to where Naruto didn't care to know. Across from him was another seemingly endless wall – gray and imposing. There was no wall to the right. Instead there were what appeared to be evenly spaced pillars made of corroded metal that reached from floor to ceiling. Behind them lay only darkness.

The masked man had approached the center of the pillared side of the room and looked it up and down before lightly clearing his throat. The noise carried regardless.

"_**Six years of darkness and yet you dare to show your face before me now… betrayer."**_ The voice was deafening, malicious, inhuman. Naruto realized that there was something behind those pillars and it was evil. Naruto curled even further into a ball and leaned into the wall for support. He didn't want to know what lay beyond the rusty pillars – the rusty _bars_. He closed his eyes.

He wanted to disappear.

"Surely I have no idea what you mean." It was the masked man speaking again. Naruto hated him. It was that man that brought him here – that was talking to _it._

"_**Do not lie to me human! You sent me there, knowing what would happen. I am not your subordinate or you tool to be experimented with! Know that I blame you for this… imprisonment."**_ Naruto didn't know how something so evil could sound even more terrifying. His entire body was shaking now. Why wouldn't it end?

"How was I to know that the mighty Kyuubi would be defeated so soundly? I'll admit I had my concerns, but surely you didn't expect me to foresee your current… circumstances."

The cavernous room shook with a roar more horrible than any Naruto had ever imagined. It was like a storm. _**"You patronize me even now. Were I able I would consume you, body and soul, for such insolence. Listen to me and listen well, Uchiha Madara. Get me out of this place. Get me out or on my very existence I swear your misery will be dwarfed only by the vastness of time itself. Get. Me. Out."**_

Naruto desperately wanted the voice to go away. Why was it still talking? Who was that man and why did it know him? As the questions raced through his reeling mind his body continued to curl up on itself and shake uncontrollably. He silently begged for someone, anyone to end this now. He wanted to go home.

A hand grabbed him gently but firmly under his upper arm and he could feel himself being pulled up from the wet floor. "Stand up."

He knew that voice.

He opened his eyes and lifted his head to see Pain standing beside him looking down on him with just a bare hint of concern written on his face. "Stand up, Naruto."

The boy staggered to his feet and took a moment to find his balance. The shaking had stopped and he felt better already with Pain there. The stoic man – the only man that Naruto saw as family – turned his attention to the masked man who still stood in front of the monumental cage. The masked man – Madara – hadn't stopped his conversation with the monster. Naruto could see the gigantic, glowing red eyes of the beast now – each taller than a man. They were truly terrifying, but with Pain standing beside him he could look upon them – with fear, yes, but also with determination.

Konan's words from a time long past came back to him. _ "If you look away from what you fear then your terror of it will only grow."_

Naruto looked upon the Kyuubi now and felt his fear diminish – if only slightly.

"No need to use such damning words, Kyuubi. Plans are already in motion to release you from this place. All I require is your patience in this matter." Naruto had to admire the man just a bit for standing before the monster and speaking so calmly to it. He supposed that he was a novice in these matters, though.

Pain placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "It's easy to show courage in the face of a being who can do nothing but curse its own helplessness. Remember this and remember how far the mighty – and the arrogant – can fall." The words were said softly so that only the two of them could hear. It made Naruto feel warm that even before such great and terrible forces he and Pain could still conspire a bit together. He knew his master was a powerful and important man with powerful and important allies like this Uchiha Madara, so when Pain talked to Naruto he felt important too - especially now when other powerful and important people – and things – were present. He wasn't being left out. "I think it's time we get back on track, don't you agree?"

Naruto could only stare as Pain began walking forward towards Madara.

_**"Do not offer me false platitudes. Free me from this place and then, perhaps, I will forgive your treachery."**_

"As loath as I am to cut this reunion short, you did not come to me today to have words with this… thing." Madara tensed slightly as Pain spoke from behind him and turned slowly to observe the newcomer.

Madara stood still for a moment staring at Pain. "I did not expect to see you here."

The fearsome red orbs narrowed at the newcomer. _**"Who are you, human, to interrupt us?"**_

Whatever the Kyuubi had been expecting, it was not the response it received. Pain looked up to stare at the monster before him and showed no reaction when the Kyuubi's narrowed eyes widened as their gazes met. "I am the one who will be freeing you from this place." Pain glanced over his shoulder towards Naruto before returning his rippled pools to the bijuu. "Or not."

Pain's attention turned back to Madara. "Shall we return to our business, then?"

The masked man studied Pain for a moment before nodding slightly. "Very well."

Then he was gone.

The piercing-riddled man gestured Naruto forward to stand beside him. The boy did so reluctantly. Pain placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder once more and they faced the Kyuubi together.

"I take it you can feel the truth of your situation, can you not? You already know that you will not be escaping this place."

Luminous eyes narrowed as they stared down at the two. _**"I will not abide imprisonment, human. Be it in my true form or within this body, I shall be free."**_

Naruto didn't like that one bit, but decided to let Pain do the talking. After all, he didn't know what to say.

"In this body, you say? I would suggest then, Kyuubi, that you not hamper my student's growth. If you intend to take his form, would it not be better if it were strong?" As he spoke he gave Naruto's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

_**"You do not believe me capable of gaining control. I tell you this, human. Many have underestimated me in the past. None have survived."**_ The monster paused for a moment and its massive red eyes closed in thought. _**"Still, your words hold some merit even if you speak them for the boy's sake. I will not fight him if he proves to be a worthy vessel for my power."**_ The giant orbs snapped back open. _**"What say you, boy? Will you continue to cower before the strong or will you rise up and take the power of this world for yourself?"**_

Naruto knew that it was time for him to speak. He steeled himself and met the monster's eyes unflinchingly. "I've already promised to become the greatest ninja in the world. You don't have to worry about my determination." A frown grew across the boy's face. "I may have been afraid when I first came here, but don't think for a second that you can twist me from behind my father's prison. I will do what I want and you won't stop me."

_**"Strong words from a whelp so sure of his own invulnerability. Do not flaunt it so. I will not abide your foolishness. I will not abide death. Not now. Not ever."**_

Pain stood forward again. "In any case, there is still the possibility that you can be freed. Only time will tell. Know that your fate rests in Naruto's hands, Kyuubi. And mine."

The Kyuubi's eyes narrowed in anger and a low growl emanated from its cage. _**"I have nothing left to say to maggots such as you. Be gone from here!"**_

So they went.

* * *

It was later that very night, after the man known as Uchiha Madara had departed, that Pain and Naruto spoke again.

"Will he really be able to take over my body?"

"It is possible, but for that to happen the seal would have to weaken over a decade or more. I cannot be sure if it is even possible. In any event, we have plenty of time to prepare a strategy if that time ever comes."

"Won't I die if Kyuubi gets out like that man wanted?"

"Yes. But as I've said before, I doubt that such a thing is even possible. We will investigate. In the meantime, allow me to worry about Madara while you focus on your training. Perhaps we will start working with the Kyuubi's chakra soon. It will be necessary for you to learn how to harness it."

"Good night, Pain." Naruto walked slowly back to his room to fall into bed. He was dead on his feet.

"Naruto." The boy turned to look back at his friend and master. "I am sorry about what happened today. I did not expect Madara to react so harshly to your presence."

Naruto nodded and left the room. He was too tired to think about the events of the day. Sleep called to him, and Naruto answered.

* * *

Naruto slammed into the wet ground and felt his right arm break even as he rolled and skidded uncontrollably across the forest floor. Before he could stand up or even take stock of the situation a blow crashed into the side of his chest breaking ribs and driving the air from his lungs.

He had been returning from his morning swim and fishing trip. For the last two weeks Pain and Konan had let him move to and from the river on his own. Now he was regretting it.

Ribs aching, Naruto let forth a pitiable moan as he clutched at his chest with his good arm. His head spun and his vision blurred. He looked up to see his assailant just as another blow landed on his temple knocking his head back against the ground and sending him reeling.

It was the fat man from that day in Pain's study. He was still dressed from head to toe in black with only his two hands uncovered. The man continued to rain blows down on Naruto's now unprotected body. He lost track of how many bones had been broken. He wasn't sure he could count that high.

He needed help.

Where was Pain? Where was Konan? Where was someone? Anyone?

Help me!

He was shocked to hear a voice growl back.

_**Very well, whelp. I will not abide our destruction!**_

It felt like liquid fire was flowing through his veins, but at least the aches and pains were gone. His head cleared a bit as he glared up at the fat man towering above him. He had stopped his attacks and appeared to be just staring down at the boy.

Then he jumped back a number of feet.

Naruto stood up slowly – frankly astonished that he could. His body seemed to be wholly recovered from the brutal beating that he had sustained. He took the moment of respite to glance down at himself and gasped when saw clawed hands in front of him. _His_ clawed hands. They were covered in a transparent, red, viscous looking substance that seemed to be rolling off of his body. He looked down at himself and found that he was covered in it.

It was chakra, but he had never seen visible chakra before – only that molded into jutsus. It must be the Kyuubi's. The uncomfortable tingling he felt all over his body was a testament to the malicious character of the monster's chakra. It was slowly burning him alive.

Naruto's attention was drawn back to his surroundings when numerous footfalls alerted him to the presence of others.

He was surrounded by men in black cloaks decorated with crimson clouds. One stepped forward and he recognized Pain looking at him with what seemed like approval. Naruto swiveled his head back to the fat man in black when the man reached up to pull the dark cloth from off of his head and eyes.

Naruto gasped as the eyes pierced his own. Staring back at him from the man were the same rippled steal-blue eyes that he saw every day on Pain's face. This man too had black piercings on his face though they were in seemingly impossible positions - as if they were growing right out of the man's head. The man's hair - slicked back and held in place with the same slashed Ame forehead protector that Pain wore - was the very same rusty orange of Pain's own. In fact, now that Naruto looked around, all of the men surrounding him shared the piercings, hair, and striking eyes of Pain.

"What's going on?"

Pain continued to step towards him slowly – eyes never leaving the boy's own. "Everything is alright, Naruto. How do you feel?"

"Who is that man?"

"He is me. We are all Pain."

Naruto shook off that response. His mind was racing too fast to analyze the words. "Why did he attack me?"

"To force you to draw out Kyuubi's power. We've been unsuccessful so far so I believed that forcing your emotions to rise and Kyuubi to protect you might work." He gestured slowly towards Naruto. "As you can see, it did. Now, how do you feel?"

"Like I'm being stuck with a thousand tiny needles. My skin itches… burns."

"Unsurprising. Now try to draw the chakra back into the seal and close it away. I can assist you if you like." The fat man stepped forward a bit, hands raised slightly.

"No! No, let me try on my own." He was still wary of the man… clone… body that had attacked him. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine drawing the red chakra back into the seal on his stomach but found himself unsuccessful time and time again. The burning sensation that he could feel all over his body continued to increase. "Hurts…"

"I'm going to seal away the excess chakra before it does serious harm." The fat man moved forward but Naruto flinched away.

"I won't hurt you." This time the fat man had spoken in a deep baritone voice.

"It's alright, Naruto. He is me. I'm just trying to help." The original Pain came to stand in front of Naruto with the fat man. "Hold still and relax."

The fat man placed his hands above Naruto's shoulders and continued to stare at the boy's chakra-coated body. It was then that Naruto felt rather than saw the red chakra being sucked away from him. Looking to his right and left he was astonished to see the destructive miasma disappearing into the man's hands.

It was over in moments. The red chakra was gone and Naruto fell forward weakly only to be caught by his master's form. "Are you alright, Naruto?"

"I hurt all over and am a little tired, but yeah, I guess." Naruto struggled to stand on his own but in the end settled for leaning on Pain's arm. Again he turned his attention to the congregation of pierced and menacing men around him. "Who are all of these guys?"

"As I said before, they are me." Seeing Naruto's confused look Pain went on. "Think of them as the most complex clones you've ever seen. How did you think I ran our army always cooped up in the cave?"

"I never really thought about it. So these guys have their own minds like a shadow clone?"

"Not exactly." This came from a slim man with a high ponytail behind his head and a long bang that fell to the right of his face. A truly bizarre piercing stretched across the bridge of his nose and seemed to be driven into the flesh underneath either eye. Naruto didn't want to think about how painful that had been to come by. "We share a collective consciousness. In effect, we are all one and the same. I, Pain, control all six of these bodies simultaneously. They are my Six Paths."

"So… wait. If you're all the same person, then which one of you is the real Pain?"

Naruto never got his answer that day. He was deterred by the six identical, wicked smiles that split the otherwise markedly different faces of the men around him.

It would be a very, very long time before Naruto asked again.

* * *

**A/N**: And there you have Chapter 4.

Please, please, please review this story! The amount of feedback from the last chapter was truly pitiful. I want to know what you liked and what I need to change.

**Next Chapter**: _Gimme Three Steps_ by Lynyrd Skynyrd. We'll get our first glances at three new (canon) characters as they are introduced to the story. I also think we'll push the clock forward two years or so. Naruto will be eight. Yeah, that sounds about right.


	5. Gimme Three Steps

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Posted: **9/25/08

**A/N:** First off, I want to thank you all for your great reviews. It's uplifting to know that others enjoy my writing and I'm not just some crazy ranting to myself in a story that no one else can identify with or enjoy.

I also got some great recommendations concerning "marketing" the story. Some of you may have noticed that I changed the summary a bit – it now says quite plainly that this is an Akatsuki fic – and I took Pain out of the character listing. When I first posted the story I naively thought that the Naruto + Pain listing wouldn't scare readers off. At the time I was a bit concerned, but didn't give in to my misgivings. Looking back I too am guilty of opening a seemingly interesting story and immediately X-ing it thanks to a m/m character listing. I'm a hypocrite, what can I say?

Another concern I got was in regards to Naruto's characterization and his interactions with others. If you don't think they're entirely believable then I'm right there with you. I did my best to make Naruto seem childish yet not so inept that a guy like Pain wouldn't put up with him. Frankly I could spend tens of thousands of words describing Naruto's evolution and growth as a person as well as his training and interactions with others, but you probably would be bored to tears reading it and I frankly don't care to write it. This isn't a child!Naruto fic by any means – though he does start as a child. Chapters 4 & 5 are meant to show glimpses of Naruto's time growing up so that you as a reader aren't simply handed a super-cool ultra-powerful Naruto who leapt from ignorant child to monster ninja in a single chapter. I'm doing the best I can to give you insights into Naruto's character without wasting time on filler fluff. As an avid reader of fanfiction I personally prefer a moving plot to a large amount of wasted time spent building relationships – especially ones that are supplementary to the overall plotline.

I'm trying my best to show you what Naruto is like instead of telling you. It's not perfect, but it's the best I've got.

Naruto is eight now, so the childishness is pretty much at an end. Sure it's not realistic but it fits in fine with what we know of the Naruto universe. Kakashi was a chuunin at age six, after all.

Here's chapter 5, enjoy!

**Chapter Title: **_Gimme Three Steps _by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

* * *

"Haha! Knew your luck couldn't hold out forever, kid. Two pair, kings and tens."

"I've got aces and fours."

The large man's expression fell in an instant as the assembly burst out in uproarious laughter. "You've got to be fuckin' shittin' me."

The small form of an eight-year-old boy leaned forward to pull his winnings of loose bills and unopened packs of cigarettes into the considerable pile already stacked before him.

"Why'd we ever let this brat start playing with us, anyways?"

The answer came from a wiry man seated to the left of the speaker. "Because you thought he'd be an easy mark, dumbass."

"I swear, that kid has the devil's luck."

Naruto grinned behind a black cloth mask as he looked up from his winnings. "Something like that."

A darkly clothed figure approached the group from the opposite side of the small campfire burning brightly nearby. The dancing flames of the fire kept the area surrounding the flat stump that the five card players were gathered around brightly lit. "Oh, damn. You guys still letting Tiger take you to town every time you have a mission? I thought you lot were smarter than that."

"Tiger? I thought the brat was Kitten?"

"Hehe, not since he tore that poor chuunin limb from limb." The newcomer turned to the sandy-haired man who had asked the question from over his shoulder as he gathered his cards for the next hand. "You didn't hear about that, Aizawa?"

The man – Aizawa – grunted. "Just got back from a two week mission up north yesterday morning. Now I'm going out again. No rest for the wicked, eh?"

"You can go cry to Lord Pain if you're so put out. See how that goes for ya." The smirk that accompanied that statement receded as the dark man continued. "Anyways, some pyro rookie was flinging explosive tags all over the damn place. Tiger over there ran up and tore him apart like nothin'."

"Just a leg and an arm." Naruto didn't like them blowing everything out of proportion. The man hadn't been paying attention to his surrounding – content to cause as much mayhem as possible – and paid the price for his carelessness.

"Oh, just an arm and a leg was it? Did you cut them off or what?"

The man standing over the card game spoke again. "Nah, nothing so nice. Kid shredded the poor bastard. He looked like hamburger afterwards."

"Damn. Kitty's got claws, eh?"

Naruto placed two cards from his gloved hands down on the stump before him as his turn to draw came. "You have no idea." The words were mumbled more to himself than anything, but the rest of the players shifted uneasily as they caught his mutterings.

"Say Tiger, what are you going to do with all those smokes you won anyway? You seem a bit young to have a use for 'em. Your mama'd probably give you a good spanking if she found you smoking at your age."

Naruto gave a small chuckle. "If I was lucky. You guys use them as currency in these games so I will too. I'll sell them later on if I can't lose them."

"Just remember, your luck can't last forever, brat. It's called karma."

"And who says I haven't already had my share of bad luck?" That kept the players quiet for a long minute.

A figure landed beside the campfire causing the assembly to look up quickly. "Game's over, gentlemen. I have our orders from Lord Pain."

The cards and winnings were quickly pocketed or sealed away, the lone observer wandered off, and the newcomer appraised his squad. "We're to hit a supply depot tomorrow morning, early. We'll be running all night. Stay awake. Stay aware."

The answer came simultaneously from all five ninjas. "Yes sir, captain."

Then they were gone.

* * *

Naruto's sleepy gaze met the slitted blue orbs of his reflection as it did every morning. The mirror had been a rather recent addition to the cave's washroom – added only a year before - and had only been acquired after no small amount of panic from the blond child. The boy had been justifiably concerned when only a few months after the activation of his seal Pain and Konan had begun sending him an inordinate number of puzzled and concerned looks.

Then came the daily examinations of his seal.

At first Naruto was content to write these oddities off to his imagination, but when he had started growing claws – hard, long, and sharp – where his fingernails and toenails had once resided he decided that it was time to take a more proactive approach to determining his current status.

It hadn't actually taken too long to convince his minders to provide a mirror that he could use. Konan had procured one almost immediately – presumably one that she and Pain had been hording all to themselves somewhere. They did have an uncanny knack for looking immaculate in their black cloaks despite living in a cave with no running water.

Naruto had been justifiably upset when he first examined himself. He certainly looked a bit demonic with the now incredibly thick scars on his cheeks that ran back to his ears, long, sharp fangs that hung over his bottom lip - which he had been studiously ignoring up to that point - and slightly pointed ears which were thankfully covered by his messy hair.

Strangest of all were Naruto's eyes. They had maintained their trademark blue color but the pupils had stretched vertically, just like a fox's. As a result, Naruto found that he had almost perfect night vision and that his eyes could quickly adjust to rapidly changing levels of light – an ability that came in incredibly handy on the battlefield with exploding tags and fire jutsus being tossed about like confetti. The skin at the edges of Naruto's eyelids had also darkened to a near-black hue giving him the appearance of wearing eyeliner at all times.

After the initial panic of seeing his new visage and assurances from Pain that the seal was acting normally and that the changes were simply a result of the Kyuubi's chakra being drawn on at such a young age, Naruto found that he actually liked the new look he sported. It made him unique and fearsome – two qualities that he admired in a shinobi like Pain.

Naruto decided that he would do nothing to downplay the changes and even grew his spiky hair down to his shoulder blades in order to look even more "wild." He was the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, after all. It was part of who he was and Naruto quickly assimilated that fact into his identity as a ninja. If he was to be the strongest ninja ever, he had to look the part.

Now if only he could convince Pain to let him out without covering everything up. Ever since Naruto had started missions with Pain's forces he had been forced to hide as much of his physical appearance as possible. He wore gloves and close-toed shinobi sandals – which were incredibly uncomfortable on him - to hide his claws, a dark cloth mask to hide his whisker scars and fangs, and even a long bandanna to keep his unruly hair mostly covered and controlled.

He understood the need to keep his appearance hidden, of course. Such unique characteristics would raise interesting questions among both Pain's and Hanzou's men. So many people couldn't keep a secret no matter what was tried, and Pain certainly didn't want news of Naruto's presence in Rain to get back to old Sarutobi.

Naruto didn't particularly want that either. He was content to train and gain experience under Pain's and Konan's expert tutelage. He owed the two so much that the least he could do was help them achieve their goal of freeing Rain. They were the closest things he had to a family, after all.

Content with his appearance, Naruto left the washroom and made his way to Pain's study. He had been told the night before to get plenty of sleep because he was to be assigned a special mission today. His footsteps were light and almost noiseless, yet Naruto had still never been able to approach the room without being heard long before he reached the door.

He was a bit surprised when he heard familiar voices emanating from the study. Pain nearly always kept the door closed and sealed against sound penetration, especially during conversations with "outsiders." Naruto could only assume that Pain had wanted him to overhear this conversation for one reason or another.

"… finally put his plans in motion?" The high, melodious tone was Konan's.

"_Yes, the Uchiha clan is now reduced to three…"_ This was Zetsu. Naruto hadn't heard him come around in some time. By the fact that he'd stopped talking so abruptly Naruto could only assume that his presence had been detected by the strange man - thing. He kept walking towards the study and knocked softly at the partially open door.

"Enter." Naruto walked in to find that Pain, Konan, and Zetsu were all present and standing before the battered desk.

Pain turned away from the door and back to the odd man. "Now that Itachi is a missing nin he can be placed in the field full time. I'll have him paired with Kisame. Hopefully their personalities will rub off on one another… or cancel out."

Zetsu stared at Naruto for a bit, which did nothing to set the boy at ease. The black and white man was obviously put out by the fact that Pain didn't seem to care to keep Naruto out of their conversation.

"Hello again, Zetsu." The man ignored him.

Konan sent Naruto a slightly apologetic glance before speaking again. "Why did Madara not tell us this himself?"

Zetsu appraised the woman for a moment before his lighter side answered. "Apparently he is helping Itachi recover from the battle and sent me in his stead."

Pain decided to take control of the conversation once again. Naruto had learned quickly that the man didn't like to mince words with his "associates." "If Madara can keep Itachi under control then he will be an excellent addition to our organization."

"_Still, it is a shame that we lost Orochimaru because of the boy."_

"Orochimaru never intended to stay with us long. He simply took advantage of our offer in order to get close to young Itachi. The man was far too arrogant and self-centered to follow our rules. Were it not for the fact that he poses no threat to us I would have destroyed him for his treachery myself. His time will come soon enough."

"_He has been busy these last two years."_

"And no doubt he will remain so now that he is content with his so-called immortality. I imagine he will set his sights on Konoha once again."

"_Madara will not want us to interfere."_

"I have more important things to concern myself with than Orochimaru's games. My own plans are nearing fruition."

"Very well. I will take my leave then." Zetsu paused for a moment before shifting his sight to the stone floor and then back to Pain.

Pain raised an eyebrow and then a finger, pointing behind the assembly. "The door is there."

Zetsu spared one last glance at the expressionless face of Pain before turning and walking through the wooden portal. Naruto thought he caught the strange figure mumbling to himself under his breath.

Once the man was gone Naruto let loose a barking laugh. Zetsu always made a habit of popping in and out unexpectedly. Apparently Naruto wasn't the only one who had found it rather rude and annoying.

A small smile graced Pain's face. "The wonder of seals." He leaned back on his desk and turned his full attention to Naruto. "I'm going to give you your first solo mission. You've been out of the country on small group assignments, but this will be very different from what you've been tasked in the past."

Naruto straightened at that. He'd been bugging Pain to give him a solo mission ever since his training period had ended and he'd begun taking missions.

"What have you learned of Akatsuki?"

* * *

Naruto silently cursed the bastard who decided to build a ninja village in one of the world's tallest mountain ranges. It wasn't that he couldn't handle the steep and rocky environment. He just wasn't used to it. The unstable paths and cool weather were nothing like Ame or even Konoha. It was windy, chilly, and all around uncomfortable. Naruto couldn't wait to be out of here.

His target was alone on a rocky terrace at the top of a long, stone stairway that led up from the base of the mountain. She sat cross-legged on the ground with her eyes closed. She seemed to be meditating, completely unperturbed by the small gusts of wind that whipped her long platinum-blond hair about her head. She was rather small – being only a couple of years older than Naruto himself – and wore simple black shinobi pants and a long-sleeved cream-colored shirt.

On the surface Naruto's mission was laughably simple while at the same time remarkably delicate. He could think of about six thousand ways to screw up – not a few of which would result in his untimely death.

He had to talk to a girl.

This girl, actually. The problem arose from the fact that Naruto had only talked to two members of the female species at any length in his life: Konan and Ayame – the ramen shop owner's daughter back in Konoha. Konan didn't count. She was more of a mother / big sister / evil overlord of chakra control figure to Naruto. He hadn't seen Ayame since the day that Konan had taken him away from the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

The light-skinned girl before him was a ninja, though - or something like that - so he supposed he would treat her like he would another ninja. Without the sarcastic comments. Or cursing. He could usually keep the swearing under control, despite the beginnings of a rather severe bad habit forming from all the time spent with Pain's men. He'd have to keep working on that.

Not now. Later.

But still, cut back on the cursing.

Okay. Now that that was settled he just had to decide how to approach her. She didn't seem too aware of her surroundings, but that was just one of the side effects of meditation, he supposed. Perhaps the direct approach was in order. He was here to talk to her, after all.

He landed only ten feet in front of her and quirked a small grin when she started and jumped to her feet, looking around frantically for any sign of attack while crouching low to the ground. She remained tense as her gaze finally fell on Naruto, who imagined he looked a bit frightful without any of his normal coverings on. Today he wore only his typical dark gray ninja pants and shirt.

"Hello. Nice day, don't you think?" He was terrible at breaking the ice, he concluded. A bit embarrassed at the horrible line, he reached back with is right arm and rubbed the back of his head through his wild mane of hair while not failing to notice the young girl tense up at the innocent movement. She had a decent amount of training already then. That or she just expected him to hit her.

"Who are you?" Her voice was cautious and a little confused, and for the first time Naruto noticed that her eyes were puffy and bloodshot, as though she had been crying.

"Ah, sorry. My name's Naruto. Pleased to meet ya!" He took a step forward and extended a wickedly clawed hand, which only caused the girl to flinch and take a step back. "It's a bit frightening, huh? Sorry about that."

She shook her head to regain what little composure she had. "What do you want?"

"I came to talk to you, Yugito."

"Me? How did you know I was here? How do you know my name? Are you a spy sent to kill me?"

Naruto raised his clawed hands above his head in a placating gesture. "I guess you could call me a spy, but I definitely wasn't sent here to kill you. I just came to talk."

Yugito's reddened eyes bore into his own. "About what?"

"Are you alright Yugito?" This question seemed to throw her off a bit. "You look like you've been crying." She turned her head towards the ground in shame before remembering her situation and looking up at him again.

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

The girl was starting to get angry. "I said I'm fine. Now what do you want?"

"What's wrong?"

Now she was practically snarling, her tears forgotten. "Not that you'd understand anything about it, but I was training. Now tell me what you want before I kill you!"

"The Two-Tailed Cat isn't very good company, huh?"

The somewhat fearsome visage the girl had adopted melted away abruptly only to be replaced by a look of fear. "How do you know about it? Who are you really?"

Naruto discretely took a step forward while the girl was distraught. "Just a kid who wants to know if you like what you're doing. What you're going to do…" He paused for a moment before feigning curiosity. "Why are you up here anyways?" He already knew why she was on this mountain – Unraikyo – and nearly half a day's travel outside of the Village Hidden in the Clouds - but he'd rather hear it from Yugito herself.

Yugito was looking more and more unsure of herself as the conversation drew on. "My master lives here most of the year. It's quiet…" She shook her head once again. "What do you want from me?"

"Are you happy?" The question once again caught the young girl off guard.

"Wh-what?"

"I asked if you were happy. Are you happy, knowing that you're training to become a weapon for the Raikage? Knowing that the most they'll ever see you as is the cage for the Nibi? They're training you to become a monster in battle. Right here, right now." Naruto took another small step towards the girl. "Does that thought make you happy?"

Yugito was losing whatever was left of her composure. Still crouched low, she reached into the kunai pouch on her back and withdrew one of the sharp weapons, holding onto it as though it were a lifeline. "I'm going to be a great Kumo kunoichi. Killer Bee is helping me." She shook her head again in distress. "I don't want to hear it! I don't know you. You're probably here to make me defect! You're trespassing. I'll kill you!"

But before she had even finished her rant Naruto had jumped into action. The distance between them was only seven feet, and he closed the gap in a fraction of a second.

Naruto was never one for real subtlety when it came to words. He probably could have avoided having it come to blows, but Naruto was a boy of action, and action he took.

Drawing his fist back, he drove it – hard - into the girl's stomach just below the rib cage. She dropped like a rock and grasped her battered abdomen, kunai all but forgotten on the ground next to her. Naruto didn't waste any time as the girl gasped for breath. Flipping her unceremoniously onto her back with his foot, he straddled the poor girl's chest and dropped his bottom onto her heaving stomach – right on top of her hands.

The air knocked out of her a second time and her hands now trapped underneath the body of her assailant, Yugito could do nothing but gasp for air as the small, feral child leaned forward over her form and grasped her exposed throat with one of his clawed hands.

"Killer Bee is helping you to become a tool of the Raikage. Did you think that you'd be like him? Allowed to do what you wish, to go where you wish? Did you think you'd be respected for anything other than the power of your bijuu?" He saw the fear in her eyes, and for a moment, he pitied her helplessness. "You are not the Raikage's brother. You are his weapon. Who do you think put the Nibi within you, and why?" She struggled desperately but Naruto simply shifted his weight and tightened his hold on her pale neck. "To them you are nothing but a weapon of war. They care nothing for you. That's why they brought you here to gain control over the Nibi. So long as you can wield the bijuu's power for them they will be content to allow you to live – to maintain some semblance of freedom."

Naruto inhaled loudly and deliberately. "If that's all you want in your life, then by all means ignore my words, but for now, listen."

The girl was tearing up again. She knew she could do nothing at this point to dislodge the little demon boy sitting on her belly without risking him tearing her throat out.

So she listened.

"Years from now, when you are grown, you will have to make a choice. Will you continue to sacrifice your very existence to appease those who see you as a prized pawn, or will you break free and become your own woman? Will you be controlled or will you forge your own future?" He leaned down over her, his lips next to her left ear. "Will you be a great monster, or a great kunoichi?"

Naruto liked this. He felt powerful. He also felt a bit ashamed at having stripped the defenses from this girl who was just like him.

Still, he had a mission to accomplish, and he needed his words to sink in.

He could maim her. That would certainly leave an impression. It was a bit crude though, and a bit cruel. He didn't particularly want to be remembered as cruel. As he hovered only a few inches above her frightened, tearful face, he came up with a better plan. He leaned down and put a big, wet, and sloppy kiss right on her lips.

He knew this action would be horrifying enough to make sure she remembered him and his words.

God knows he was plenty horrified by it.

But now it was time to leave. He leaned back, giving her some room and spent a moment observing her shocked and confused face before speaking one last time. "When that day comes, ask yourself if you are happy. Your life depends on it."

He slowly started to stand, but thought better of it and slammed his fist into her stomach again for good measure. It wouldn't do for her to stab him in the back. He began walking away, being sure to confirm that the girl was still lying on the hard, smooth stone in shock. Hopefully she'd remember when the time came.

_Intruder. One. White. Northeast. __**Fast!**_

One of his shadow clones had dispelled. Naruto only had enough time to leap out of the way before a projectile embedded itself nearly six inches into the hard stone where he had been standing – arcs of electricity still dancing around the blade.

Naruto frowned. He already knew quite a lot about his assailant just from the small bits of information he had gleaned in the last two seconds.

First, the newcomer hadn't attacked his shadow clone directly. He had bypassed it - forcing the clone to dispel itself - which meant that the man knew the abilities of the shadow clone and how to spot them, which also meant that he had probably seen more than one despite Naruto's best efforts to keep them hidden.

Second, the man was incredibly fast. Far faster than Naruto, in his eight-year-old body, could ever hope to match.

Third, he was lightning chakra natured, which is what had allowed him to electrically charge the short sword that had been thrown at Naruto.

Fourth, the short sword he had thrown was an extremely rare and powerful weapon made with chakra steel. While a ninja with lightning natured chakra could channel their electricity through any metal object, the fact that the sword had retained its charge even after being released meant that it could absorb the chakra nature of its user. Not just anybody could obtain such a weapon. The newcomer was a _somebody_.

Naruto was in deep shit, and he knew it. The light patter of feet hitting the ground behind him – near where he had left Yugito gasping for air – only served to confirm how badly he had messed up. He had meant to be gone by now.

He didn't even have to turn around to know who was standing behind him. Still, it wouldn't be very prudent to ignore his attacker.

Killer Bee wore sunglasses. He also wore seven swords in a specially made sheath on his back – one of which was now missing. His chest was adorned with the standard tight white flak jacket popular among Kumo jounin. His arms were bare, showing off his well-muscled, ebony biceps. Unlike his peers, he wore a long white scarf and two odd, long tassels that hung from his uniform.

He was the Raikage's younger brother, the second strongest ninja in Kumo, and by all accounts the strongest jinchuuriki in the world.

Naruto had to figure out how we was going to survive the day, and quickly. Any wide-area jutsu wouldn't do anything but scratch this man – resiliency ran in his blood and was only augmented by the bijuu within him. The young boy was outclassed in every way.

"Did you have something to say to Yugito?"

Naruto remained tense, still trying to think of a way out of this mess. "We already finished our conversation."

The man's head turned slightly to observe his young charge as she slowly and painfully rolled onto her knees, not even attempting to stand. Having confirmed that she was relatively unharmed, he focused his attention on Naruto. "You're trespassing."

"I know."

"Cheeky brat. Don't you know that I'm going to kill you?"

"I really wish you wouldn't."

Killer Bee cocked his head to the side. "How old are you?"

Naruto considered the question for a moment. "Eight."

The large man smiled. "It's a good number. A good year to die."

"I'd really rather live to be nine."

The dark-skinned man continued to appraise Naruto. "That's an interesting look you have."

"I know."

Naruto was ready. Forming the hand seals for the shadow clone jutsu, two copies appeared at his sides and let loose with as many shurikens as they could muster. Killer Bee rolled quickly and easily out of the way as even more shurikens flew towards him from the rocky heights around the terrace. Naruto's shadow clone sentries had arrived.

He dove backwards and pushed chakra to his clawed right hand as he grasped the hilt of the still crackling sword embedded in the ground.

Killer Bee seemed to pause for a split second in his dodging as he witnessed the lightning recede from the blade. The boy was wind-natured. He quickly resumed his acrobatic rolling in order to keep well ahead of the continuous shuriken barrage.

Naruto became alarmed when he realized that the large man was slowly moving closer and closer to him even despite his clones' best efforts to keep the two separated. Killer Bee was a monster in close combat. If he got near enough then Naruto was dead. He had to make his move right now.

At a signal his shadow clones let loose with the rest of their weapons in one massive barrage, forcing the dark-skinned jinchuuriki to jump off of the ground in a short, fast leap to Naruto's right. Naruto forced as much wind chakra as he could into Killer Bee's short sword as he pulled it back. And he prayed.

Naruto had never used a chakra blade before and wasn't quite sure of the dynamics. On top of this, he was only just becoming proficient with wind manipulation – he still had a long way to go before he achieved mastery. He needed the blade to move fast and true, so he packed the wind chakra around and through the blade, added a spin, and let fly.

All three of the jinchuuriki were shocked when a loud crack rang through the mountains and the sword leaped from Naruto's hand at incredible speed. The boy had lead the older jinchuuriki's movement as he leapt through the air in the hopes of catching him in the chest with the thrown sword, but he hadn't realized just how fast he could throw the chakra blade. It tore through Killer Bee's left bicep sending blood and flesh spraying from the wound.

The man hissed in pain as he landed unsteadily and rolled to avoid a small brace of shurikens. When he looked up once more, his target was nowhere to be found. It took a few moments before he had confirmed that both the boy and his clones were gone. He stood easily despite the gaping wound in his arm and walked back over to Yugito, who sat breathlessly on the hard ground.

"Son of a bitch." Despite the fact that the flesh of his arm was already knitting itself back together, Killer Bee was not happy. "Did that brat tell you his name?"

Yugito looked up sheepishly at her master. "Um, Naruto I think."

The large man's head snapped around at that.

"Shit."

* * *

Naruto loved playing poker.

It wasn't about the money. After all, what would he spend it on?

He liked the challenge.

To Naruto, playing poker was like being a ninja without the risk of bodily harm. Each player was given a set of tools - which the opponent was completely unaware of - with which to do battle. The object of the game was to defeat your opponent or force him to retreat through deception and calculated risk.

Unlike other games of strategy, poker allowed a player to cut his losses and run from the battle. Each hand was like a skirmish in a war, and every good ninja knew when to save his skin and run. Games like chess and go started the two opponents on equal footing with only their wits to guide them. But ninja weren't created equal. Even the smartest ninja would fall to a strong opponent if the gaps between their levels of skill and power were too large.

There was no retreat in those games. You either lost or you won. It was easy to find yourself in an untenable position, and then the game was over.

Poker allowed the player to pick his battles – just like a good ninja did. It was a lesson that Naruto was glad he had remembered just two days ago in Lightning Country.

Naruto's love of poker had brought him to Otafuku Gai in Fire Country for the day. He figured he would cut through the forests of his early childhood – keeping well clear of Konoha, of course – instead of trudging back into the gloomy weather of Rain Country on his way southwest to the Village Hidden in the Sand.

He was currently playing in the high roller's backroom of a rather large casino - which was a bit strange by everyone else's estimation. Eight-year-olds were not often seen at this table, but Naruto had forked over the money that he had accumulated from scalping his fellow Rain rebels, foraging through the belongings of ninjas he'd slain, and turning in bounties on missing ninjas that he'd collected on his few trips outside of Rain Country. The old bastards at the table had grinned at what they thought would be an easy payday. They were regretting it now.

"How the hell does the creepy brat keep winning?"

Naruto didn't particularly appreciate being called creepy, though he supposed their comments were justified. He had once again donned all of his usual coverings so as not to alarm any of the players with his appearance. His eyes probably unnerved them. That was good for him though - most players didn't play as well when they were nervous or skittish.

He glanced down at the large stack of chips before him and smiled. It had been a very good day so far.

The game was interrupted when a thin, middle-aged man ran into the room rather dramatically. Naruto figured that it was a friend of one of the players. "You'll never guess who just walked in!"

"Keep it down Yoichi, we're in the middle of a hand." Yep, the newcomer must be an acquaintance of the squat, bald man who was about to bluff all of his money away to Naruto.

"The Legendary Sucker's here!" That drew the attention of the man.

"You're kidding."

"No, she just walked in and she's headed back here!" A number of wicked grins passed around the table before the bald man made his large bet.

Naruto called almost immediately, earning a loud grumble from his opponent. "Well, that's it for me then." As he raked in his winnings his statement was met with shock and surprise.

"You do know that the Legendary Sucker always dumps money when she comes around here, right? You could make a whole lot more."

"That's alright. I figure I'll let you old folks recover from the pounding I gave you." His wide grin was visible even through the dark cloth of the mask he wore. "Besides, it's getting to be my bedtime." That got a few chuckles. Naruto always found it best to leave a game on a high note, especially after he took all of the money.

As Naruto was racking his chips, the door to the backroom swung open to admit a young woman with long, light blond hair tied into pigtails followed by another young woman with short black hair holding a… pig. Naruto did a double take upon seeing the blond woman. No way was she really that young, or her breasts that huge. Wasn't she supposed to be forty-something?

Naruto knew who the "Legendary Sucker" was, of course. The famous Sannin of Konoha had a reputation as the greatest ninja healer in the world and – more recently – the worst high-stakes gambler in Fire Country. She was actually the reason he was leaving. He wasn't sure how close her ties were with Konoha these days, but her background as a medical ninja would certainly lead her to question Naruto's strange getup. She most certainly had known his father and knew of Naruto himself.

He wasn't taking any chances.

"My seat's free, I was just getting up." Tsunade raised an eyebrow at him as she took in his appearance. She'd never seen a kid back here before, nor had she seen one so strange. "I'll leave these old farts to you. They seem real eager to part with their money today."

There were some grumbles and some chuckles at that. "No one's as lucky as you, kid."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head endearingly. "Sure, sure. Good luck with these guys, lady."

Moments later he was out the door with a set of chocolate-brown eyes boring into the back of his head.

He wasn't sure he was going to like the desert any better than the mountains, but he'd find out soon enough.

* * *

Naruto did _not _like the desert.

At all. Especially considering that Pain ordered him to cover himself up thoroughly when he traveled.

He had killed a guard in order to gain entry into the Village Hidden in the Sand – there was no other way around it. The massive shield wall was constantly observed for any enemies trying to scale it in order to enter the city, and the narrow gorge that led through the wall was heavily guarded as well.

He'd settled for sprinting up the massive wall in the dead of night and ordering a shadow clone to stick a kunai in the lone guard's temple to silence him. Then he'd jumped down the other side and checked into a hotel room.

No one would trace a dead guard to an eight-year-old boy, after all.

He awoke early the next morning thanks to the dry, oppressive heat that began to permeate his room the instant the sun rose above the shield wall.

Time to find his target.

Pain had warned Naruto that Sabaku no Gaara was a bit unstable thanks to his seal and the nature of the One-Tailed Tanuki. Naruto was pretty sure he'd never met anyone who was "unstable" before, so when he found the red-haired boy on the outskirts of the village playing with sand and mumbling to himself under his breath, Naruto was understandably cautious.

There were two types of jinchuuriki in the world: powerful tools and rejects. Naruto knew right away which type he was, and Pain had never tried to dissuade him of this notion. Naruto was a tool, but he was also a part of Pain and Konan's dysfunctional family. Naruto was perfectly fine with that. He was treated like a person, a subordinate, and a friend. Ninjas were tools of their masters, and to Naruto - so long as they liked their masters - there was nothing wrong with that.

What Naruto was looking at now wasn't a good tool – it was a reject.

Naruto didn't have any patience for rejects. Sure it wasn't fair that jinchuuriki got stuck with a raw deal in life, but to give in to the whisperings and ravings of the bijuu was – in Naruto's mind – a horrible failing.

It was weak.

Jinchuuriki were expected – _chosen _– to be greater than the bijuus they held at bay. If a jinchuuriki could not do the one thing asked of him above all else then he was a disgrace, plain and simple.

Sabaku no Gaara was a disgrace. Sabaku no Gaara was a failure.

Still, Naruto had a job to do and a mission to complete. He would deliver his message and be gone – hopefully never to return to this God-forsaken place.

He approached cautiously from Gaara's front, wary of startling the lunatic. "Hey there!"

The redheaded boy didn't seem to notice him at first, but at Naruto's call he looked up to meet the blond's eyes – the only part of his body that was readily visible. Naruto was too close to Suna to remove his coverings as he had in Lightning Country.

Naruto got his first good look at the Ichibi's jinchuuriki and did not like what he saw. The boy's jinchuuriki markings had manifested themselves around his eyes, giving him the raccoon-like appearance typical of the tanuki. It made him look a bit out of it. Even more disturbing was the red kanji for "love" carved into the boy's forehead. Had he done that himself?

Damn. The kid was even crazier than Naruto had feared.

"Go away." Gaara's eyes darted back and forth as though expecting attack at any moment. He probably did, actually. Pain had mentioned that Gaara's own father, the Fourth Kazekage, had ordered him assassinated on multiple occasions.

"I just want to talk to you for a minute."

"I said go away. Mother is resting."

"Uh, mother? There's no one here but you and me, bud."

"When mother wakes up, she's always hungry." Naruto wasn't even sure if the kid was talking to him or just rambling to himself at this point.

He took a few cautious steps forward. It was hard to hold a conversation from thirty feet apart. "And what does she like to eat when she wakes up?" He figured he'd go for appeasement just to get the crazy boy to settle down and listen – though Naruto wasn't sure how much good his speech would do. Unless the kid got his head screwed on right in the next few years he'd be just another casualty of Akatsuki.

Gaara's teal eyes met Naruto's cerulean blue for a moment. "Mother likes blood."

Okay. This guy was absolutely fucking crazy. With no small amount of horror Naruto realized that Gaara's "mother" must actually be the Ichibi. Now that was messed up. "Well, be that as it may, I have a message to give you and your, um… mother."

Naruto couldn't believe he had just said that.

A slight rustling of sand was the only indication he received that an attack was incoming. He jumped to the side just as the massive form of a hand made entirely out of sand crashed to the ground where Naruto had been standing.

Fucker was trying to kill him.

"Mother wants your blood."

Naruto snarled. "Well tell her she can't have it." He'd have to take a more direct approach. The only problem was that this close to the city he couldn't use any of his larger jutsus without drawing unwanted attention. He'd have to get a bit creative.

He threw a group of shuriken at the deranged boy but was discouraged when the sand surrounded the redhead in a makeshift shield. What was worse was that Gaara didn't even seem to be paying attention to Naruto's attempted attacks. The sand seemed to protect him on its own. Naruto created two shadow clones and the three surrounded the redhead. Together they threw even more shuriken. Sure enough, the sand wrapped around Gaara and took the blows from the blond's projectiles.

Okay. So he had to get past the sand.

Signaling his two clones, he sprinted forward to draw the attention of the Ichibi's vessel while the clones rushed in from behind. Naruto was faster than Gaara's sand, but just barely. As he and his clones weaved in and out of the earthy defense he saw his clones land blow after blow on Gaara's arms and legs with their kunai. Finally content with their effort, he jumped back from his prey even as his clones did the same.

The satisfied grin on his face melted as his clones shook their heads at him dejectedly and dispelled.

What in the hell?

As Naruto gained his clones' memories he immediately came across the problem – their kunais couldn't pierce Gaara's skin. Or more accurately, they couldn't pierce what was covering his skin. The little shit had sand caked all over his body!

Making two more clones Naruto decided he'd just have to aim for unprotected locations. The clones charged in once again to draw the sand away and give Naruto a clear path to his target – a target that he had just now realized hadn't moved a single inch since the start of their fight. Did the kid really rely so heavily on his sand?

That was a mistake that Naruto was keen to take advantage of. While Gaara's sand was distracted, Naruto charged in at top speed, slamming his knee into Gaara's exposed stomach and throwing him backwards onto the ground.

Damn, but that hurt! The kid weighed over two hundred pounds with all that sand on. No wonder he couldn't move much.

Not wasting time, Naruto pulled out a kunai and positioned its tip just an inch above Gaara's left eye. "Enough of this bullshit! You move again and I'll cut out your goddamn eye. I just came here to talk but apparently you aren't capable of conversa…"

Naruto had assumed that the boy pinned below him would possess a self-preservation instinct, but apparently he relied on his bijuu's to take care of both of them. Without warning Naruto was swept off of the redhead's chest and hurled bodily across the dry, rocky ground. He hadn't been prepared for that. Stupid.

Now he was angry. What the hell was wrong with this kid? If Naruto had any expectation that he would be resisted like that then Sabaku no Gaara would be down an eye right now.

Then it hit him.

If the sand protects him automatically then who's to say the kid has ever been hurt? Of course he wouldn't fold to a threat of physical pain or dismemberment if he had no basis to compare such an injury to.

Well, Naruto would just have to change that. Time to give this bastard a lesson in pain.

Naruto's remaining clones had been dispelled by now, so he created two more. His strategy had worked well so far, and because Gaara didn't seem to be a strategic fighter Naruto didn't see any reason to change his plan of attack. The crazy jinchuuriki had obviously relied on the powers of his bijuu for far too long.

The blond boy charged in once again – this time adding wind chakra to his hand. The Blade of Wind jutsu was the only seal-less technique he could use, but it would serve his purposes here – to cut through that obnoxious sand armor of Gaara's. Naruto's clones were destroyed more quickly this time, and he wondered if perhaps his opponent was learning his attacks or if the bijuu itself was adapting to his style.

No matter. He'd made it through once again. Naruto's attack cut deep into the redhead's shoulder causing blood to ooze and mix with his sandy protection. The blond winced – he didn't really want to know what sand in an open wound felt like.

Naruto was brought out of his musings by Gaara's insane screaming. It wasn't _that _bad. Then again, it pretty much confirmed Naruto's suspicion that the Sand jinchuuriki had never experienced any kind of intense pain before.

He approached the madly screaming boy slowly. He had no intention of getting close to him again.

"How's that feel you freaking psycho? Now listen up. The next time I fucking tell you I'll cut your eyeball out I really will do it." Gaara was still on the ground screaming and clutching at his shoulder – no doubt aggravating the injury. "Are you even listening to me?"

He got no response. "_Shut the hell up!_" That grabbed the boy's attention, whose screaming was reduced to whimpers. "Get your damn bijuu under control or you'll be dead a few years down the line. Enough of this crazy shit. Do you want to be a monster or a ninja?" Naruto was fairly sure that nothing he was saying was getting through to the boy.

He left.

Naruto supposed he'd have to chalk this one up as a failure despite his best efforts. The nut-job just wasn't salvageable. Oh well, at least he'd won some money and stolen a kiss. The trip hadn't turned out all bad.

* * *

Naruto crouched down behind the thick trunk of a leafy tree trying to get a good look at the main road of the small village he was observing. It was Naruto's first mission as a vice-captain and he didn't want to screw it up.

There were eight of them there today – two squads of four. The Captain had taken his squad into the trees above the road a good fifty feet to Naruto's right. Naruto and his three subordinates had the low ground and were spread out parallel to the roadway.

The mission was simple – attack the Ame ninja storage depot located in this small town and empty of it of any valuables while destroying the leftovers.

The blond boy had been on similar missions throughout Rain Country over the past months, and one thing above all always bothered him yet always remained the same.

It was the poverty.

Rain Country was pockmarked with small towns such as this one, and all of them were ramshackle and poor. The people were even worse off. Nearly all of their raids took place at night - when the residents of the towns were indoors - but on the few occasions where Naruto caught a glimpse of them he had not liked what he saw. These people were starving to death, and it was all because of Hanzou.

The sad truth of Rain Country was that it couldn't maintain a ninja village the size of the Village Hidden in the Rain – and Amegakure was very large. Despite this, Hanzou had built the city in the middle of a desolate floodplain and insisted on keeping it large, powerful, and battle ready. The civilians and ninjas of Ame couldn't possibly grow enough food for themselves, so Hanzou's men taxed and stole from the outlying villages in order to keep Ame afloat. While the ninjas of Rain Country thrived, the common workers – farmers, artisans, and others – suffered under the tyranny of Hanzou's rule.

Rain Country had no daimyo because before Hanzou, no one thought that the floodplains of Ame were worth unifying into a country. Its residents lived quiet lives in small villages and largely were ignored by the ninja clans – and later villages – who battled across the wet wasteland at the center of the ninja world.

Then came Hanzou. In Rain Country Hanzou was law. Before Pain, no one had thought to stand up to the Salamander. The man had built Ame where he had for a reason, and that reason was that no one could defeat him in Rain Country.

No one.

He built his city at the end of the First Secret World War and took the country under his iron fist, daring any and all to oppose him there.

And many had. But none had defeated him.

Yet.

The country was in turmoil thanks to Hanzou's single-mindedness, and Pain was out to stop him. Naruto could sympathize with that.

The blond scanned the seemingly empty town with unequalled vision - his gaze cutting through the dark and the rain thanks to the changes Kyuubi had wrought. They had to make sure that there were no Ame ninjas on patrol here. Ame had begun randomly sending squads to confront Pain's men soon after the raids had started, but so far had been generally unsuccessful.

This town had a rather large supply depot in it despite its small size, and Naruto expected there to be at least a few guards to deal with. Because an extra patrol could tip the advantage in the enemy's favor, they had to be sure that no such patrol was here.

Everything seemed quiet, and that was a good sign. Naruto just had to wait for the captain to give the go ahead and his team would sweep into the town to provide a distraction for the Ame guards while the Captain snuck in behind them.

The signal didn't come.

Two Ame ninja landed in the roadway, their backs turned slightly away from both teams' positions. Apparently they hadn't been noticed.

The two ninja conversed with one another too quietly to be heard over the constant patter of rain – oblivious to the eight men watching them intently.

Naruto took a moment to observe them – amused at how unmindful they were of their imminent demise. They both wore their hair long down their backs – one with black and the other with silver-gray. Both wore the standard cream-colored flak jackets of the Ame ninja and re-breathers over their faces – though the one worn by the silver-haired man was substantially larger. Naruto figured that it was an older model. While the black-haired ninja wore his Ame headband proudly on his forehead, the other sported a thick faceplate that protected not only his forehead but extended down both sides of his face to meet his re-breather. It looked rather archaic to Naruto, who wondered why the man was sporting such odd and dated equipment. A short, forest-green cape that reached just below the man's waist finished off the strange look.

The two men finished their conversation and the dark-haired ninja disappeared in a show of chakra-enhanced speed. The remaining one – Naruto could only suppose that he was older – paused and surveyed the empty village street, oblivious to any danger.

Naruto was a bit surprised at how foolish the ninja was to remain behind alone in such a situation, but would gladly accept an easy kill. His captain apparently agreed.

Naruto grinned behind his cloth mask as the form of his captain leapt silently from his camouflaged perch in the trees and sprinted deftly towards the lone Ame ninja from the poor man's blind spot. The Captain would make sure it was over quickly.

He was almost at his target now – who was still oblivious to his peril – and had drawn a kunai with which to end the lone man's life. Naruto watched with pride as his commanding officer drew within five paces of the man and readied his strike to the Ame ninja's neck. The man had still not shown any indication that he had any inkling of his fate…

Which Naruto suddenly realized was incredibly odd.

In that moment his stomach plummeted and the instincts that he had learned to trust screamed out in horror. Even a ninja of low chuunin rank would have sensed the Captain's approach – would have given _some _indication that he anticipated an attack.

The gray man hadn't even twitched.

The Captain lunged, and Naruto watched in disbelief as the lone ninja stepped inside the Captain's guard at impossible speed and stiff-armed him in the face, causing the Captain's head to roll on his shoulders.

It didn't seem that bad at first – as if the Captain had only been performing an exercise to loosen his neck and shoulders. Naruto would have thought his commander to be fine were it not for the sickening crack that rang through the rain and the muffled thud that resounded as his body fell lifelessly to the damp ground.

Naruto was frozen in shock. He'd killed plenty of oblivious ninjas in the last year – slitting their throats and severing their spines without any resistance on their parts – but he'd never seen a ninja take a life so effortlessly as this man had. Not even Pain and Konan killed with such ease.

The gray ninja stared at the body for a moment before flashing through hand seals with the speed of a true master. Lightning arced off of his body and into the ground before Naruto felt a small jolt in his feet. The shuffling of his men nearby told him that they had felt it as well.

Not good.

"And then there were seven." The voice was deep and crisp, yet with just the right amount of inflection as to promise untold pain and suffering. Simply hearing it sent chills down Naruto's spine and caused him to break out in a cold sweat.

It was the voice of death, and it was here for him.

Time to act. Naruto gave the signal for full retreat just as the grove of trees where the Captain's squad had hidden exploded in a storm of boiling sap and burning splinters. It took a moment for Naruto's mind to inform him that a massive lightning strike had obliterated three more of his comrades.

Naruto formed seals quickly. Thirty shadow clones burst into existence around him, not bothering to seek cover. They were a distraction – nothing else. He turned to the three men behind him, who were still too stunned to take action.

"Go. Get out of here, now. I'll meet you at the rendezvous point."

"Sir, that's…"

"I know! Now run!" He didn't bother to keep his voice down any longer. It would be a miracle if he survived this, but he'd be damned if he let his entire squad die on his first mission as a leader.

"Noble of you, but…" Naruto turned back to the man – to the monster – to _Hanzou_ – as he felt the rain stop. But it hadn't stopped. It was being sucked up to an ever-growing sphere above the legendary ninja's head, guided by his two arms raised skyward. "Futile."

A sickening cracking sound permeated the battlefield. Naruto looked on in horror as the massive ball of water started _freezing_ and emitting the horrible noise. Large spikes of ice as thick as Naruto's legs grew in all directions from the watery mass and only continued growing. Soon all was ice, and if he threw it at them…

Naruto fled, leaving only his shadow clones behind. They would stall the jutsu as long as possible. Naruto only made it twenty feet before the wind picked up to incredible levels. His clones were no doubt making liberal use of the Great Breakthrough technique to try to push back Hanzou's frigid monstrosity.

It was all in vain. The apocalyptic din of shattering ice told Naruto that the makeshift spears were on their way despite his clones' best efforts. Naruto twisted in mid-leap and created two more clones before the three of them flashed through seals as quickly as possible. The Cyclone Blow technique was not nearly as large or destructive as the Great Breakthrough, but by creating a focused wind tunnel effect it was ideal for launching – or diverting – projectiles through the air. It was an act of desperation, but it worked.

Sort of.

Naruto watched in stunned fascination as the ice spears tore through the trees like a marble through tissue paper. As they impacted the trees and ground below they shattered outwards into smaller and smaller ice shards that tore through everything in their path. The blond's trinity of jutsus had prevented any of the larger spears from impaling the boy, but as the ice passed by on his sides and slammed into the surrounding trees Naruto was set upon by thousands and thousands of ice and wood splinters coming at him from all directions.

He barely had time to cover his eyes before he was turned into a veritable pincushion from the onslaught. His clones dispersed in the storm of debris and Naruto fell from his elevated position on top of what used to be a tree to the splinter-laden ground below.

Naruto couldn't remember ever being in this much pain. It seemed as though every inch of him was cut, impaled, and rubbed raw all at once. Wincing horribly he reached up to his mouth with his right arm and tore away his mask in time to cough up a substantial amount of blood. Apparently that fall hadn't agreed with his insides too well.

He painfully dragged his body to lean against the mangled stump of what used to be a tree. Kyuubi could heal this with enough time.

He hoped.

The slow, deliberate crunching of footfalls on the littered ground reminded Naruto that he didn't have time. The reaper was already here.

"I wasn't aware that that cowardly rebel had begun using children to commit his acts of terrorism. He's sunk even lower in my estimation than I had believed possible."

Naruto slowly forced himself to look into the eyes of his vanquisher – horrible, _black_ eyes – before coughing pitifully once again.

"If it's any consolation before you die, you might be pleased to know that your friends managed to escape. It's a feat not many can claim – to survive a battle with me without my consent. And it's all thanks to you, little one." Hanzou bent down and grasped Naruto's chin firmly, forcing him to maintain eye contact. "Who are you, that can use so much chakra at such a young age? That the criminal Pain sends you out to do his bidding?"

Naruto took offense at that. If Pain was a criminal then that meant that Naruto was one as well, and that just didn't sit well with the boy. "Pain is a h-hero. Y-you are the c-criminal."

Hanzou released his hold on Naruto's chin and stood to his full height, silently appraising the battered child before him. "I've tortured and killed dozens upon dozens of rebel 'heroes,' yet not one of them has called their master anything other than _Lord _Pain. They speak of him as some sort of god. It's disgusting. You are the first to simply call him Pain." The man's dark orbs darted around the littered ground before he bent down and grasped a particularly sharp wooden shard. "A simple coincidence?" He stood. "I think not."

Naruto wasn't really sure what the man was going to do with the piece of wood nor was he too keen on finding out. "I don't have anything to tell you." The Kyuubi was doing good work and Naruto could already speak evenly once again. He only hoped that the older man wouldn't notice his rapid healing and take action.

Hanzou stared hard at the piece of wood for a moment before bending down and ramming it deep into Naruto's left shoulder. The blond gasped at the pain in his shoulder but firmly clamped down on his tongue to keep from yelling out. "Tell me," he twisted the wooden spike, "who you," another twist, "are." He ripped the wood out painfully, finally eliciting a yelp from the boy.

Naruto clenched his fists painfully, his clawed fingers digging into his palms even through the leather gloves he wore. Steeling himself despite the thick tears that rolled out of his eyes, he looked into the black, soulless pools of Hanzou. "No."

Hanzou dropped the bloodied wood and stood again, taking a step back to observe the strange boy with a calculating glare. After a moment he stepped forward and ripped the black bandana off of Naruto's head. "Now I know you."

Naruto was taken aback by the strange actions. "What?"

The man stayed silent as he stared Naruto up and down. Unlike Pain's piercing glance, Hanzou's was predatory – as though he was sizing up his next meal. "I always remember the eyes of the men and women I fight in battle." He spoke slowly and deliberately, his cold voice rolling off of his tongue as he went. "The eyes always give the measure of a true warrior. The windows to the soul – truer words were never spoken. And for a warrior this fact is doubly true. It took me a moment to remember because the last time I saw your eyes they weren't so very feral. Eyes that sparkled with life yet bore such cold defiance." He leaned in next to Naruto's ear, as though sharing some childish secret.

"Namikaze. That's who you are." Naruto's eyes widened like saucers. How had he known?

"Who would have thought that I would find both the son of the Yellow Flash and Hiruzen's lost pet out here tonight?" If it were possible, Naruto's eyes widened even more.

Hanzou looked affronted at Naruto's reaction. "You thought I didn't notice you healing right before my eyes? Your massive chakra, your fangs, your whiskers, your eyes – it all screams jinchuuriki - though I've never seen one so feral as you are." His eyes narrowed momentarily. "It's a shame I have to kill you. Hiruzen will be so disappointed, I'm sure."

Time to go.

Naruto's body was almost completely healed by now – shoulder aside. He wrenched his hands into a cross-shaped seal and drew as much of his chakra as he could in an instant. He'd very rarely used the Mass Shadow Clone technique. Creating so many clones at once generally meant that they were inadequate for fighting, but right now Naruto wasn't planning on fighting anyone - let alone the most famous ninja in the world.

Hanzou's hands flashed out and immediately destroyed six clones within his reach before slamming the heel of his right foot into Naruto's chest. The force of the blow was so great that the stump behind Naruto disintegrated into wet sawdust – but Naruto's body was nowhere to be found.

"That was a quick replacement. Well done." Hanzou turned his gaze to the hundreds upon hundreds of clones surrounding him. "You healed much faster than I expected – much faster than any jinchuuriki I have ever seen. Then again, the Kyuubi is truly the mightiest bijuu of them all. It seems I've miscalculated." He stayed silent for a moment before his brows knit together in mock contemplation.

"Do you know what happens when this many shadow clones are dispelled all at once?" The clones responded by sending one another confused glances. "No?"

Salamander Hanzou's eyes narrowed in what the clones could only assume was a sinister grin. "Neither do I."

* * *

Naruto gasped and crumpled to the ground as he was assaulted by hundreds of memories of a blinding white flash and the smell of ozone. He was left panting on a tree branch as he was racked by a horrible migraine.

"All of them… at once… with one jutsu?" How was that possible?

He shook his head. It didn't matter. He had to reach the rendezvous point and get back to Pain. He had to let him know how he had failed – how Hanzou had learned his identity.

Naruto ran for hours through the night despite the horrible aches emanating from every part of his body – especially his abused shoulder. It wasn't until the first rays of sunlight had peeked over the eastern horizon that he had stopped. It wasn't until then that he had realized that he was surrounded.

"Naruto."

The boy slumped to the ground in exhaustion. "Thank God."

"Your squad returned nearly two hours ago. They said that you stayed behind to fight Hanzou."

Naruto knew he was in trouble. Pain had always told him to value his life over the mission. He was no good to the man dead. "There was no other way to escape. He killed Captain Hirata's squad in seconds. I didn't think we'd survive."

"And you wouldn't have if you had fled. You would have certainly been routed and destroyed one by one. You made the correct decision."

Naruto continued to struggle trying to catch his breath. "No one ever told me he had a Bloodline Limit."

That drew Pain's undivided attention. "He doesn't. What did you see?"

"Ice. He made a huge amount of ice lances and tore down half the forest with them."

"Ah. No, that isn't the ice element. It's simply one way that he manipulates water. Instead of mixing the water and wind elements like the ice users do, Hanzou uses his great affinity for the water element to manipulate the water's freezing point."

"Ninjas can do that?"

"If you have as much power and control as Hanzou does, then yes."

"I think I need to start training harder. At this rate I'll never catch up."

"Keep that thought for when you wake up again. For now you need to rest and recover. Not many people can survive an encounter with Hanzou without his consent."

"He recognized me. He said I was Namikaze – that I had the same eyes as my father. He knows I'm a jinchuuriki."

Pain stood silently for a moment. "Hanzou isn't one to brag about his failures. I think he'll keep your secret safe simply because you escaped with your life when he had intended to kill you. It's the part of his nature that most likely led him to want you dead in the first place."

"His nature?"

Pain turned to Naruto and offered a small smile. "Hanzou has only been driven from the battlefield once in his life. It's no surprise that he recognized you when the image of your father still haunts him to this day."

* * *

**A/N:** Sarutobi Hiruzen - 3rd Hokage, for those of you who haven't seen the 3rd databook yet.

I hope that's enough action for those of you who wanted a bit more. How was Hanzou? He wasn't given any real characterization to speak of or much of a back-story in the manga. He's the first real villain this story offers, so I tried to make him somewhat epic. Hanzou holds an important place in the shinobi world in my mind, so mention of him will be popping up from time to time even after he's dead and buried.

About Naruto's appearance: Yes I know it's horribly cliché, but I just couldn't help myself. So many stories have Naruto taking on demonic characteristics and getting all angsty. This isn't going to be one of those fics. I also won't be falling into the trap that many writers do and give Naruto interesting qualities only to forget he has them and never bring them up again. I intend to make Naruto's odd appearance a big part of who he is and how he is perceived.

Finally, and very importantly – Pairings! I've had questions from readers about this and as of this chapter I see no point in holding out any longer. This story will be a Naruto/Yugito pairing. Databook readers were probably confused while reading this chapter. I'm going to take an AU twist on this and de-age her a bit. Databook 3 says that Yugito is 29 – that's only a year younger than Kakashi. I was surprised to find she was that old, frankly. That also means that she has 13 years on canon Naruto – not too great for a romantic pairing. Thankfully, through the magic of fanfiction we will shrink dear Yugito by eleven years. She now has 2 years on Naruto. Expect to see Yugito again about seven years (story time) and 100k words down the road. I know, don't hold your breath, right?

Now that Pain is out of the picture on the character listing, I had planned to add Yugito instead. Guess what? No dice. Yugito isn't an option as of right now. Way to go! They have some random character named Yoshino (who I don't even recall) but no Yugito. Shameful.

As always, reviews are appreciated. That goes double for constructive criticism. You can blame this early chapter on the lack of decent fics that got updated this last week.

**Next Chapter:** _Here Comes The Sun _by the Beatles. If you haven't figured it out yet, these chapter titles do have some significance. If you want to try to guess what's going on in the next installment, I suggest you listen to the music. They're all good songs, I swear!


	6. Here Comes The Sun

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Posted: **10/19/08

**A/N:** First of all, I can't say how taken aback I am at the shear amount of responses this story has received now that Chapter 5 has been posted. It's rather unbelievable - over 150 reviews, 15,000 hits, 50 C2s, 250 favorites, and 300 alerts. Thank you so much for your positive responses and support of the story. As an author, knowing that my work is being read and enjoyed by so many really makes my day.

I went back and reread the whole story (for the first time, hehe… yeah) and was somewhat surprised with how many little errors there were. If you're as nit-picky as me about that sort of thing, feel free to leave a review with any problems you may find. I _will _go back and fix even small mistakes so long as they are pointed out to me. This story has no beta, and never will. There are a number of reasons for this, but the largest is that I have no patience for waiting for editing to come back before posting. When I finish a chapter I want it posted as soon as possible, and damn the mistakes. This usually means that the chapter only gets a cursory re-read by me before going up. Mistakes are bound to occur, so if you have the inclination please point them out. I won't be upset, I promise.

Yugito! Upset about the lack of Yugito on the character listing, I (as well as many of you readers, thank you) sent emails in order to get her put up as an option. Well damn it people, you did it! Yugito is now an option for the character listing and is, as you can see, the second character for this story. Some of you may be excited, but as I said at the end of Chapter 5, you'll have to wait around 100k words to see her again. I have quite a bit of story planned between now and her reintroduction. I'd say I'm sorry, but as I said in Chapter 1, this isn't meant to be a story that focuses heavily on romance. That having been said Yugito _will_ be a major character down the road, so if you can be patient, look forward to it.

Apparently people liked my Hanzou for the most part. Jiraiya indicated that he was the most famous ninja in the world and that even the Toad Sage thought that "no one man could defeat Hanzou," including himself. The Salamander has to be a monster, right?

This is Chapter 6 of _Houses of the Holy_, and Naruto is now nine years old. Enjoy!

**Chapter Title: **_Here Comes The Sun_ by The Beatles.

* * *

A nine-year-old Naruto sat quietly under the falling rain. He came here regularly – to a tall, rocky ridgeline just minutes from the cave – to think.

Or not think.

Oftentimes he simply let his mind wander, focusing on the pitter-patter of rain as it struck the stone outcropping around him. He found it relaxing after a day of hard training or a night of raiding throughout Rain Country.

The rain didn't judge him, criticize him, or condemn him. It didn't look at him with hateful or fearful eyes as his enemies did. It didn't harm or help him.

It was indifferent to Naruto.

It simply was.

It had been more than four and a half years – more than half his life – that Naruto had lived hidden away in Rain Country. Even for a nine-year-old, it was difficult to remember the time when he was four - had been just another civilian - had been innocent.

But he wasn't innocent any longer.

Half a lifetime spent in a war zone had made even a child like Naruto into something most people never became – never could become – a hardened warrior. He'd lost count of the number of deaths he'd seen and lives he'd taken over the years.

But it was for a good cause. He didn't make this world of ninjas, but he could change it.

That's what he had learned over the years. Great men built the world. Great men could mold it.

It was at times like this that he wondered what sort of life he would have if he hadn't been rescued from Konoha when he had. Would he have joined the academy? Would he have learned anything? Would the teachers have hated him just as the villagers had? Would he have been a laughingstock or an icon?

Whatever would have happened, he wouldn't be himself.

Naruto's eyes turned up as a brilliant bolt of lightning lanced the sky. "Hello Konan." He turned around at the waist and looked at the blue-haired woman as paper flew out of her cloak's sleeves and reformed her legs.

"How did you know I was here?"

Naruto's eyes squinted as he smiled widely at her. "The rain. It sounds differently when it hits your cloak than when it hits the ground." He let his gaze drift back out over the forest far below his perch.

"You're getting very good." She took a seat next to him on the cliff and followed his gaze to the landscape below. "I still don't understand why you come out here all the time. This rain is just so…"

"Wet?" Naruto again focused his gaze on her in question.

Konan frowned. "It's dreary… ugly…" She looked Naruto in the eyes. "It's depressing." She lowered her head. "Just like this whole country."

She was brought out of her reminiscing by a peel of youthful laughter. Naruto cocked his head to the side and found her confused gaze. "It's just rain, Konan. It doesn't hate you like you hate it. It will fall tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that. It doesn't remember what you do – who you are." He leaned back on his elbows despite the rough stone beneath him and looked to the sky as another bolt of lightning reached out across the sky. "The rain is the rain. It falls on everyone in the same way. If you don't like getting wet then you should go indoors." Naruto continued to lay down on the hard stone behind him. "I don't mind being wet so much."

"You're too young to understand."

"Well you're right about one thing. I don't understand." Naruto rolled on his side to look at Konan, who remained sitting next to him staring over the forest beneath them. "The rain was here before people ever settled in Rain Country, right?"

Konan nodded silently.

"Then why do you hate the rain so much? The rain didn't cause the problems in this country, the people did."

Konan frowned and turned her gaze back to Naruto. "Don't blame the people here for their misfortunes."

"Why not? They chose to live in this place. They can't be considered innocent just because the weather doesn't agree with them."

"Because it was the ninjas that ruined this country, not the people who came here to live in peace."

"But the ninjas are part of this world! The civilians can't just ignore them and hope to be left alone. You told me that this country was crying because of all of the people who lost their lives here. Doesn't that include the ninjas too?"

Konan tilted her head and looked to the dark, sad sky above. "I suppose… no… I know it does." She sighed. "Maybe this place is just cursed to be miserable."

"Are you miserable?" Naruto held his hands behind his head as he lay on the hard ground and stared towards the dark heavens. "I'm not. I've been thankful every day I've been here." He cocked his head slightly to look at the older woman. "If this country is so bad, then what's the point in saving it?"

She had to think for a moment before answering that. "It was our home. Mine, Pain's, and…"

"And who's?"

Konan's mouth stretched into a sad smile. "Our friend Yahiko's. He was the one who said that this country was always crying… always weak. It let the ninjas run over it for too long."

Naruto had never dug deeply into Pain and Konan's background. He had his questions, but it was painfully obvious that the two had buried their feelings about the past behind them long ago. They had been too painful for them to discuss, and just as they had never grilled Naruto about his early childhood, Naruto had never pressured them about their origins.

"He's dead?"

Konan was silent for a moment before nodding rather forcefully. "He's dead."

Naruto knew this line of questioning was hard on her. He wanted to know more, but needed to ask gently. "What was he like?"

"He was like you." A new voice cut into the conversation, mirroring the lightning slicing the sky above.

Naruto and Konan whipped their heads around to find Pain standing mere feet behind them. They hadn't heard him arrive.

"He was loud, brash, and stubborn. He could be more annoying than any man I've ever met." Naruto was a bit surprised when Pain stepped forward and sat on the opposite side of Naruto from Konan. He was rarely this relaxed. "But he saved Konan and I when we were in need. He kept us alive and optimistic. He found us a teacher." Pain's eyes narrowed slightly. "We owe everything to him."

"That's why you're fighting to free Rain Country?"

"Not just Rain. This world - the world that ninjas built. It's filled with corruption, evil, and injustice."

The three companions remained silent as thunder rolled across the dark heavens.

After the roar had subsided Pain began again, slowly. "There's more to a man – to a people – than sheer strength, yet this world of ninja is propped up by those who offer nothing beyond the threat of pain and death. A man like Hanzou has the power to lead a country but not the inclination to use that power to make it better. So long as those with power are assured of their own security and prosperity they aren't willing to lift so much as a finger to help others. Instead they trample those weaker than themselves into the ground for their own selfish satisfaction. It's been going on for so long now that the people of this world simply accept that sad reality – that the strong govern the weak. In this world to be a ninja is to be strong, and to be a strong ninja is to be a king. The daimyos have less and less influence over foreign and domestic policy, especially in the great nations where the ninja villages are so integral to the country's health that disrupting their workings would result in the country's ultimate destruction – whether it be from within or without. The ninjas are the country's strength."

"And the strong rule." Naruto sat up abruptly to look sideways at Pain. "But how is what we're doing different from what the other ninjas do? You're strong. Konan's strong. Aren't you just going to kill Hanzou and take the country over? I know that you're a hell of a lot nicer than he is, but how is this any different? Some people will still be unhappy."

Pain appraised Naruto silently for a moment as another flash lit the sky and a peel of thunder pressed down on them. "Nothing can be changed without the power to make that change, it is true. But what Yahiko wanted wasn't a world where opposing sides of a conflict would constantly clash and create more chaos. He wanted an end to all the wars that cause the innocent pain and suffering."

"How?"

"Empathy, I suppose." Pain's eyes narrowed slightly as he continued to gaze through the hazy rain. "He wanted all people to understand one another – to understand that we all have the same dreams… the same fears… that we are all fundamentally the same."

Naruto frowned. Nobody had seemed to think twice about treating him like trash back in Konoha despite the truth to Pain's words. If people there couldn't see the humanity in a defenseless child… "Easier said than done. Like you said, people are selfish. They won't simply bend over for each other when it would be easier to hurt those they dislike."

Konan let out a short laugh. "Just like him."

Pain gave a small nod. "Yahiko believed that as well. Forcing others to perceive the good in all was a worthy ideal, yes, but impossible in practice. The only way to spread the kind of empathy needed to change the world is to _inflict_ it, and you can not inflict charity and good will on others."

Naruto stayed silent for a moment. "The bad in all, then."

"Everyone bleeds. Everyone can feel loss. Everyone can suffer, can feel it…"

"Pain."

"It's something that everyone understands. By spreading pain all people – all the world – can be brought together in empathy. Fighting and wars will be avoided above all else out of fear. Fear of losing those people and things that are most precious to them will prevent people the world over from harming one another."

Naruto lay back down on the hard, cool stone beneath him. "But the world has been waging wars and spreading pain and suffering forever. Why would things change now? Ninjas constantly kill each other. Civilians die. Wars continue. Why would they pay attention to their pain now when it's been ignored for so long?"

Pain raised his right palm up in front of him and watched the rain gather into a small puddle in his cupped hand. "It's simply a matter of scale. The pain the world experiences now – has experienced in the past – is but a small drop compared to the flood that we will unleash." He slowly poured the pooled water from his hand onto the rock beside him. "When people seek to fight one another they first assess the possible risk against the possible reward. If I steal, will I get caught? If I am caught, what will be done to me? What am I willing to do to avoid being punished? The same goes for countries and wars. They must decide if the gain in land, money, and prestige they may win is worth the lives of their men. How many soldiers are they willing to lose to achieve their ends? It is a question every human must ask. What are you willing to give in order to gain?"

Pain paused for a moment as the sky was split by another bolt of lightning that lanced down into the forest sprawling before them. The thunder clapped like a cannon shot when it reached them a second later. Naruto couldn't help but blink as the sound rushed over him. "Until now, countries have always considered that the possible rewards of their conflicts could eclipse the pain caused due to the losses they experience in men and resources. I intend to rewrite that equation. When wars become so large and horrifying that their consequences surmount their possible rewards then there will be no inclination to fight one another. The fear of pain will stay the hands of all enemies."

"So by making everyone miserable they'll get along better?"

"Miserable today and empathetic tomorrow. This world is pathetically naïve in its thinking. The child-like mentality that might is superior to all else must be crushed. The world must be forced to grow up."

Naruto sat silently and let Pain's words fully sink in. "You think you can do that? Make the world grow up? Even if it means destroying so much that everyone lives in fear?"

"It must be done in order to bring peace to this world. Otherwise it will remain in its infancy – forever damned to be indifferent to the suffering of the weak."

"Sounds crude." Naruto spared a sideways glance at the man beside him. "So you're a god of pain, then?"

Konan chuckled at that.

For the first time since sitting down, Pain shifted to look at Naruto. "Pain is the method, not the mark." He paused for a moment and took in Naruto's position on the ground. "I didn't think you'd be one to throw around words like god. Perhaps you've been spending too much time out on missions with the men."

"I don't know why you put up with that garbage to begin with. They can't honestly believe that you're a real god. It just seems silly."

"You're right. But in a sense, their position is understandable. Would you rather believe that you are fighting under the command of a mere man who is capable of making mistakes like every other, or an infallible, undefeatable god? There's no reason to discourage such sentiments."

"I suppose it would be easy to believe that our side was assured of victory." Naruto smiled widely. "Then again, it's not like you've made any poor decisions since I've known you."

The three sat there in silence - but for the rain - for long minutes. "So you don't think you're a god?" Naruto saw Konan's head turn towards the two of them at this, as if she too was curious as to what the answer would be.

Pain's gaze was transfixed on the dark sky above them – his body absolutely still. "No, I do not. I have no interest in being worshipped. I am not infallible. I will grow old and die like any other man."

Naruto nodded his head slightly from his position on the rocky ground.

"But then again, I am willing to do anything – _everything - _to accomplish my goals. I would gladly sacrifice my humanity to change this world for the better. In that sense… in that sense I suppose I can no longer be considered a man. Like a god, I will allow nothing to stand between myself and the future. I will do what is necessary to come to that end, no matter the consequences."

Konan turned her head away. Naruto wasn't sure what to make of that. Pain's confession warranted a response though, so Naruto spoke. "I understand, I think."

Once again the strange trio quietly watched the storm rage about them. Like Naruto's life, the storm was ever changing yet reassuringly constant – with sudden, violent outbursts. Like the great events in his life, the lightning pierced the calm and reminded him of the dangerous reality of his existence. The bright forks were the wake-up calls that upset Naruto's frighteningly fragile reality – being taken from Konoha, his first kill, learning of the Kyuubi, his first mission with the Ame resistance, Hanzou - all events that shattered and reshaped his perceptions of the world.

Just as the lightning cut the fragile darkness of the storm.

"Two weeks." Naruto's head rolled to the side to look at Pain's outline against the overcast sky. "In two weeks we will be gone from this place. For good."

"After all this time we're finally ready?" Naruto spoke more to himself than anyone else. He looked back and forth between Pain and Konan. "What took so long? Are you just now strong enough to kill Hanzou?"

Konan shook her head sadly. "Pain could have defeated Hanzou years ago. There's more to taking over this country than killing him."

"Like what? Once he was gone surely you could have taken control. Why wait so long?"

Pain shifted around to face Naruto as the boy sat up. "Acting any sooner would have done nothing less than cause the outbreak of a fourth world war. We had to wait until we could be sure that the country would remain locked down from within."

Naruto's eyebrows creased together in confusion. "I don't understand."

"Hanzou has no real allies – this you know from when you faced him. Had he truly been on friendly terms with others your identity would not have remained a secret and we would have faced severe consequences as a result. He has flaunted his power and caused too much pain to those countries he holds treaties with to ever be considered a true ally by them.

"However, that doesn't mean that the world at large would welcome Hanzou's death. He represents an institution that has existed in the modern ninja world since the end of the First Secret World War. Hanzou is Rain Country. The leaders of the other nations are used to dealing with him. They understand him, in a sense. With Hanzou dead they would be forced to make new treaties and political alliances with Rain Country – something they'd very much like to avoid. Hanzou is predictable and therefore he is thought to be safe by many foreign powers.

"Hanzou is also widely seen as the strongest ninja in the world today. To hear that he has been defeated in battle and his country conquered would cause the nations of the world to panic. Naturally, they would want to know who was strong enough to accomplish such a thing…"

"And you'd be found out."

"Eventually, yes. I can't afford to be brought into the public spotlight… not so soon. There is still far too much to be accomplished with Akatsuki before I am ready to step out of the shadows. If my identity were to be leaked then ninja across the world would do their best to eliminate me. I am too dangerous for them to ignore."

"The Rinnegan? They'd be afraid of you."

Pain grinned at that. "So you have been reading through the library. I was wondering if you'd become curious as to why I found all those scrolls."

"You wanted to find out more about your bloodline, right? That's why there are so many histories of clans with bloodline limits and of the beginning of the ninja world. You're the descendent of the Sage of the Six Paths."

Pain nodded slightly. "The Rinnegan is thought of as only a legend in the world today. Only a handful of living ninjas know of my existence and my bloodline. To announce to the world that another Rinnegan user has surfaced and that he eliminated Hanzou would cause a panic. Many would try to earn my favor. Many would try to have me killed. One thing is for certain though – my actions would be scrutinized so closely that it would be nearly impossible to accomplish my goals.

"It's the reason why I have not faced Hanzou in battle as of yet. Witnessing my abilities or my bloodline limit could cause him to panic. So long as our forces use only guerilla tactics and not overwhelming force, Hanzou will believe that this conflict can be contained within Rain Country. He will not allow news of his setbacks to reach other nations if he believes that it would cause him to lose face. As a result, he has sealed all of Rain Country's borders against outsiders.

"In order to take this country covertly, our forces must be able to gain control of the border checkpoints while conquering the Village Hidden in the Rain simultaneously. In two weeks our forces will be ready and our sympathizers in Ame will be prepared to move. The country will fall to us in a day."

A wide grin spread across Naruto's face. "I have sort of gotten tired of living in a cave."

Konan gave a soft snort and looked at him with a smile. "You ain't kidding."

"Once Rain is under our control and our influence is solidified we can begin working towards our ultimate goal."

Naruto jumped to his feet staring hard at the storm and spread his clawed hands in front of his body as if grasping for the falling rain. He took in a deep breath before releasing it in a shout that drowned out even the storm. "The world!" He let out his best maniacal cackle before falling back down to the ground with a goofy grin on his face.

Konan tried to suppress a smile as she rolled her eyes and shook her head back and forth.

Pain impassively raised an eyebrow at Naruto's antics before standing up and removing a sheet of paper from within his cloak and setting it on the slick rock beneath him. Naruto eyed the sheet carefully, noticing only a basic seal decorating the visible face.

"Pick it up."

Naruto stood before moving forward and peeling the paper off of the ground slowly – wary of any tricks. When nothing seemed to have occurred, he looked up to find that Pain had gone. Turning quickly he found that Konan too was conspicuously absent. He dropped the soggy sheet to the ground and prepared himself to leave as well when he heard a soft shifting of rock behind him. Spinning around and dropping low to the ground in a wide fighting stance, he watched in bewilderment that turned to horror as a rocky _blob_ emerged from the ground before him and formed into a perfect copy of… himself.

Naruto looked around once again to check for any indication that he was being watched, but finding none, turned back to meet his doppelganger face to face.

Then it charged at him, claws flashing through the rain as Naruto jumped to dodge the swipes.

"Crap."

* * *

Naruto stood surrounded by ninjas in a massive clearing on the outskirts of the rebel encampment wearing his usual, conservative attire. He and the rest of the men and women surrounding him were awaiting an announcement from Lord Pain himself.

He had to stop himself from rolling his eyes at that. Getting to see Pain practically every day probably took some of the novelty out of hearing him give a speech, he decided.

The fighters around him were chatting excitedly to one another like a bunch of school children. Most ninjas under his command had never seen more than a small glimpse of the man they followed. Considering this, it was no surprise that they viewed him as a sort of mythical entity.

Today was different though. Pain was going to give a speech, give orders, and lead them to victory over the corrupt ninjas of Ame. Despite his familiarity with Pain, Naruto couldn't help but feel a bit giddy thanks to the atmosphere of anticipation all around him.

They were finally going to do it. They were finally going to save Rain Country.

The murmurs picked up as three ninjas assembled on a rocky formation at one end of the clearing that acted as a perfect stage for an address such as this.

Naruto had met these men on numerous occasions, whether to receive orders from them or to fight under their command from time to time. They were the three commanders of Pain's rebels – who issued orders from him to the captains in the field – Iwamoto, Kurosawa, and Kobayashi. The three stood close and conversed quietly amongst themselves – unable to be overheard by the men assembled below them.

Naruto didn't particularly care what they had to say. They were just killing time.

The minutes dragged on and the crowd grew more and more restless. They had all come fully equipped for battle and some were beginning to fidget awkwardly thanks to the familiar weight of their weapons. It was clear that they were itching to use them.

Naruto's attention returned to the platform when a black-cloaked figure appeared next to the three commanders. The mutterings around him subsided as the four men conversed quickly and quietly before the three commanders leaped down and disappeared into the ranks below.

The figure was vaguely familiar to Naruto. The high ponytail that held hair that spilled down past the man's waist and the long bang over the right side of his face identified this figure as the Beast Realm of the Six Paths of Pain. Naruto had been told by other ninjas that had glimpsed this incarnation of Pain that he had the qualities of a member of the Fuuma clan. The men had therefore speculated that Pain might have had his origins in that clan.

They would have never guessed the truth.

Pain stepped forward to the edge of the outcropping and surveyed the crowd with his Rinnegan eyes, appreciative of the absolute silence that met his gaze.

"I am Pain."

The assembly burst into a cacophony of yelling and cheering that stretched on for well over a minute. Pain waited patiently for the din to subside before continuing.

"For years, each and every one of you has shared my vision of a Rain Country free from war." The crowd once again burst into applause. "From injustice." The outburst continued. "From needless suffering." The volume was increasing to a dull roar. "From pain." He paused for a moment and let the tumultuous applause from hundreds upon hundreds of ninja below him roll across the clearing until it had once again died down to silence.

"You who have sacrificed so much for our cause will finally witness the fruits of your labors this day." Again loud cheering broke out over the crowd.

"Let us not forget the pain that we bore to come this far too quickly, nor let the wounds on our hearts close too swiftly. Those scars we will keep for the rest of our lives. They remind us that there is no achievement without sacrifice, no justice without punishment, and no joy without suffering." This was met with a low murmur from the crowd and a sea of nodding heads. Naruto couldn't help but notice that there were more than a few teary eyes around him. It was a bit sobering.

"A dear friend of mine once told me that this country was crying. One drop of rain – one tear – for every ninja who has lost his life, for every child who has gone hungry, for every innocent who has lain cold and scared in the night. For every luckless person who has fallen asleep afraid that the next day may be his last in this world. I say that it is time for this country to stop crying!"

The assembly erupted once again in applause that seemed to grow and grow. Naruto couldn't help but clap and cheer along with the rest of the ninjas as he was swept away in the emotions of the crowd.

But then something happened that no one was expecting.

The rain stopped. The applause stopped.

And the sun came out.

Naruto found himself struck dumb by the impossibility of the storm dissipating in a matter of seconds, but all he could see was clear blue sky with an occasional wispy cloud. The ninjas around him were staring hard up at the bright sky, hands shading their eyes against the bright light, in wonderment. A whispered "release" from a man standing next to him brought Naruto back to his senses and he found himself subconsciously repeating the man's actions in order to break a genjutsu on himself.

Except it wasn't a genjutsu.

As more and more men and women realized that the storm was well and truly gone the blanket of silence that had smothered the clearing was slowly lifted and excited murmurings began to spread like wildfire.

Naruto looked back up at Pain's perch to see the man still standing and staring out at the crowd below him. In the back of his mind, Naruto knew that Pain had somehow done this. He vaguely remembered the rain stopping for a few minutes on his very first mission with Pain and Konan – how Pain had somehow detected eight enemy ninjas in the area before even seeing them. Pain had somehow managed to control the storm raging above Rain Country – or at least the part above his territory. Naruto reluctantly acknowledged that the more he learned of Pain's abilities the more god-like he appeared to be. It was certainly humbling compared to the relatively pathetic abilities that Naruto had mastered.

"All hail Lord Pain!"

The lone shout tore through the clearing and broke Naruto's pondering. All around him men and women took up the chant praising their leader – their _god._

"Lord Pain!"

Naruto didn't know whether to join in, laugh, or frown. He stayed silent. Minutes later the crowd's hysterical chanting had subsided and Pain made to speak again.

"It is a new, brighter day in Rain Country. Let us build a truly peaceful future here together!"

"Lord Pain!" The chanting began again, though this time Pain raised his hands after only a few moments causing the outburst to subside.

"You all have your battle groups assigned. Disperse now and report to your captains and commanders to receive your missions. You will take control of Hanzou's border outposts so that no outsiders may interfere in our revolution. You will surround Amegakure and subdue any ninjas or civilians attempting to flee, but remember that our enemy is Ame's regime, not its people!"

The cheering picked up once again and Naruto found himself running a quick check on his own gear even as his neighbors did the same.

"And I…" The crowd became deathly silent.

"I will tear out the corruption that plagues Amegakure once and for all. Surround the city but do not enter! Those are Pain's orders!"

The crowd erupted one final time in tumultuous applause and a fair amount of screams.

"Now go!"

And they went. Naruto was rather shocked to find himself standing in an entirely empty field only a bare few seconds later. He turned back to Pain and moved to join him atop the natural stage where he was joined by six other robed figures. Looking about quickly he found Konan giving him an appraising once-over before offering a small smile.

"Are you ready?" It was Pain's main body – his God Realm.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Beast Realm stepped forward and held out his hand palm up. "I'll need some of your blood."

Naruto removed the glove from his left hand and clenched his fist tightly, allowing his claws to pierce his palm. He allowed a few drops to fall on the outstretched hand before looking back at his own, bloody palm. The wounds had already healed but sticky, red blood was still clinging to his skin.

He shrugged and licked it off, ignoring Konan's small look of disgust, before sliding his glove back on.

"Didn't want to ruin it."

Pain ignored him and turned to look north – towards Amegakure.

"Let's go."

* * *

Black eyes narrowed as they stared through four inch thick reinforced glass. It was fucking _sunny_ in fucking _Ame_. Something was about to happen and Hanzou was not happy about what it could be.

Storms did not break up that quickly on their own – not ever – and certainly not in this country.

_His fucking country._

It had to be some sort of advanced ninjutsu – he knew it. He just didn't know of any ninja that knew of such a technique.

Perhaps this "Pain" would finally be paying him a visit.

He didn't know whether to be apprehensive or gleeful. For a long time now he had assumed that the man stayed hidden away out of fear of confronting him. But this…

Only a very skilled ninja could accomplish something like this.

He remained standing, staring out the thick window overlooking the Great Reservoir in the very center of Amegakure. He had taken no chances when this place – the equivalent of the Kage Tower in the great ninja villages – was built. There was only one thin, concrete bridge that stretched out across the Reservoir in which the administrative building sat. At only four stories it wasn't tall like so many of the towers in the city were. It was more of a bunker than anything – having sloped walls built with thick, explosive-resistant windows and foot upon foot of reinforced concrete.

Hanzou didn't take chances with his life. Not now. Not ever.

Quick footsteps approached him from behind. "Sir, the rain…" The man wore the standard forest green cloak, body armor, and re-breather of Hanzou's personal guard.

"Has stopped. I'm well aware."

"Sir, perhaps we should get you to a more secure location…"

"More secure than here, captain? No, I don't think so. If he wants to come and face me then he will come. And I will be waiting."

"But sir, if…"

"Leave me, captain."

"Sir?"

Hanzou turned around, his hard eyes staring into those of his subordinate - who couldn't help but flinch under their scrutiny. "Evacuate the building, put all security forces on high alert. Take up defensive positions on the outskirts of the city and prepare for a full assault. Do not disturb me again."

The bewildered captain could only watch as his commander strode determinedly from the room and towards the stairwell leading towards the roof. Shaking himself from his shock he turned to complete his last orders from Salamander Hanzou.

* * *

Eight figures stood on a bluff overlooking Amegakure. The city was truly massive. Hanzou had had it built right on the shores of the largest river in Rain Country – one that began far north in Earth Country and snaked its way through central Rain and then south to River Country and the sea. From their position they could catch a glimpse - between the city's tall towers - of the massive lake that had formed from damming the river within the city. From the reservoir countless canals ran throughout the metropolis providing water and power to the huge, modern structures that littered Amegakure. They ended in a thick moat around the entire city. The watchers could even see Hanzou's fortress sitting alone in the center of the lake looking like a sickly gray turtle on the water's surface.

Pain stood before them all on the edge of the bluff staring intently towards the city. "The detection elements have been eliminated."

"What do you mean?" Naruto's eyes flicked quickly to his right as Beast Realm dove off of the cliff rather recklessly and disappeared below.

"That moat is usually filled with a subtle electric charge that will detect anyone trying to walk over it. It's so wide that it's nearly impossible for a ninja to cross it without touching the water."

"So it's been disabled?"

Konan nodded. "Ninjas within the village that are sympathetic to our cause have disengaged it."

"I see." Time ticked by slowly as Naruto waited for something to happen. He squinted his eyes and looked towards the city to try to make out the small black figure that was Beast Realm entering the city.

He never did see the man in black. What drew his attention was the numerous fire and lightning jutsus being launched from the far side of the moat. He supposed that that was where Beast Realm was.

"They've already established a defensive barrier. The lack of rain must have put them on alert." Pain turned to meet Naruto's eyes. "Prepare yourself. We're going into a battle zone. You and Konan are to prevent any ninja from engaging me while I deal with Hanzou. Create as much chaos as you possibly can to buy me time. Kill any who get in your way."

Naruto nodded his head and watched as what looked like a giant worm appeared on the wall of Amegakure below them and started tearing through the stone towers and other defenses.

"It's time."

Naruto stumbled but caught himself before he hit the ground. He looked around quickly in an attempt to regain his bearings and found himself and his seven companions on a large balcony halfway up a massive skyscraper. Looking behind him he could see dust and fire billowing up at what must have been the defensive wall at the outskirts of the city. Before him he could see the massive lake at the center of the city over the rooftops of the structures below.

Time to go to work.

"Scatter."

* * *

Naruto moved quickly through the city towards the lake, stopping from time to time only to create a few shadow clones before sending them on their way to cause as much destruction as possible. He couldn't help but flinch as a looming tower nearby erupted in huge balls of flame and tilted precariously to the side before falling across the canal below and into a business district.

For the first time he wondered if maybe he wasn't ready to handle this level of combat. Who was he to try to invade an entire city with just seven allies – six of which were about to be wrapped up in a full scale battle and unable to assist him?

Naruto created more clones and had them separate. He could only do his best, after all, and he wasn't the one who was going to be fighting Hanzou today – though the thought still made him shudder.

A hail of kunais rained down from above and to Naruto's left, forcing him to dodge quickly. Three ninjas wearing the re-breathers and cloaks of Hanzou's personal guard were bearing down on him from over his left shoulder.

Naruto landed on a rooftop and quickly flashed through the seals of the shadow clone technique. In moments three identical clones joined him and spread out. The ninjas followed quickly behind him and were about to land not twenty feet away when Naruto leapt into action.

It had taken Naruto quite a bit of time and patience to find the Wind Element: Bleeding Pressure jutsu. It was uncommon to find a B-ranked jutsu that consisted purely of elemental manipulation. In fact, as far as Naruto knew, there were no elemental jutsus of A-rank or above that didn't involve some element of spacial manipulation. This was undoubtedly the strongest wide-area jutsu in his arsenal.

The three jounin-ranked ninja apparently didn't expect a jutsu of this level to be thrown at them and - thanks to their precarious mid-air position - lost their composure completely in an effort to avoid the massive blast of hurricane plus-force winds.

The two on the sides of the trio landed and leapt awkwardly to the left and right – just barely avoiding the worst of the damage.

The one in the center hadn't been so lucky.

He had landed flat-footed and stumbled in his panic before taking the jutsu head on. Half the roof had joined the poor man in his descent to the roadway five stories below.

Taking advantage of his enemies' unsteadiness, one of Naruto's clones pulled a brace of kunai out of his hip pouch and launched them at the rightmost Ame ninja. The ninja drew his own kunai in preparation to swat the offending objects aside, but Naruto wasn't done.

The clone flashed through a series of seals before the kunais began to duplicate in mid-flight. Where previously there had been four of the metal missiles, the air was now thick with more than forty of the objects. The ninja had no choice but to prepare to leap away or risk being turned into a bloody pincushion.

He hadn't noticed another clone finish its own set of hand seals. All he could do was gasp as the kunai sped up to impossible speeds in a cyclone of wind before they tore through his body.

The final jounin had only moments to take in the demise of his two comrades before one of the small copies had charged at him with kunai in hand. The man pulled out his own kunai to defend and nearly gasped in surprise at the strength behind the small ninja's attack. The boy swung his off-hand towards the jounin's wrist in an attempt to break the weapon lock but the man was quick enough to bring his other hand forward in order to intercept the attack – only to jump back in alarm.

The man stared at the deep gash in his empty hand before coming to his senses. The boy had been using some sort of wind blade – a blade that would have severed his arm at the wrist had he not stopped the attack.

Then the boy was on him again. The best he could do was to use his longer reach to keep the smaller fighter at arm's length and avoid any more wind attacks. He almost didn't see the kunai flying towards his left shoulder until it was too late to dodge it. As he ducked down to avoid the projectile he turned back to look at the two clones standing together on the opposite side of the rooftop. One of them had thrown the kunai, it seemed.

Two clones…

How many had there been again?

He didn't even blink as a kunai was driven into the base of his skull from behind.

Naruto wiped the blood off of his hands and kunai on the dead ninja's cloak.

He made another twenty clones and ordered them to spread out in groups of four.

It was still early in the day.

* * *

Hanzou gritted his teeth as the Migurashi Tower exploded and fell into the West Grand Canal. No one attacked his city like this and got away with it.

No one.

He paced back and forth across the concrete roof of the administrative building in anticipation. It was only a matter of time before this pitiful usurper came to meet him.

And rain or no rain, Hanzou would triumph. There was a reason why this bunker was surrounded by millions upon millions of cubic feet of water. This was his home field.

He always made sure that he held the advantage.

Hanzou was brought out of his impatient musings by another massive explosion. He snapped his head around to see the headquarters of one of the city's most influential merchant conglomerates shiver horribly and begin to fall.

He watched dispassionately as the building - which sat just on the edge of the reservoir - toppled off of its foundation and into the water – directly towards Hanzou's bunker.

Dark eyes narrowed as an enormous wave rose up from the collapsed building and rushed towards his perch. He barely flinched as it broke on the side of the structure with a crash – not quite high enough to pass over the top of the roof. The toppled tower formed a massive bridge more than three quarters of the way to the island fortress from the shoreline.

The man at least knew how to make an entrance.

And there he was, standing on the very end of the makeshift bridge and gazing silently up towards the bunker's roof. He was young, as Hanzou had expected him to be. Young with messy hair and absurd piercings.

Hanzou sneered. This was the man who had been a thorn in his side for so long?

Black eyes followed the paths of more ninjas – five of them – as they too made their way expertly across the fallen tower to join the first man below him.

"Clones? I see that your apprentice takes after you in more than just your shared insolence."

The man called Pain just stared back up at Hanzou, ignoring his taunting.

"I hope I didn't damage him too much in that exchange. He is an interesting specimen."

The dark-cloaked man cocked his head to the side. "I should thank you for that. It seems your meeting motivated him more than any of my methods could have." He straightened again and turned his head back to the city where buildings were being torn apart bit by bit before their eyes. "I believe he is having some fun with your wayward subordinates. Do not expect them to save you from me."

Hanzou narrowed his eyes. "Did you honestly believe that you could walk into _my _city and defeat me? Come, brat, and I will show you the extent of your power."

"I highly doubt that you are capable of such a thing. Regardless, this is your last day among the living, Hanzou. Perhaps you should make your peace now."

Hanzou let out an angry growl. "Better ninjas than you have fallen to my strength. I look forward to testing the limitations of a so-called god. Today is the end of this charade. Prepare yourself!"

Pain watched the man leap with terrible speed off of the bunker and onto the water's surface while flashing through hand seals. He had barely touched the lake when an enormous eruption of smoke obscured the man's form completely. As the white mist cleared Pain gazed upon a massive amphibian – nearly three stories tall and over a hundred feet from nose to tail.

A small smirk crossed his lips as he prepared to do battle.

"The end? Oh no, old man. This is just the beginning."

* * *

**A/N:** Short chapter I know, but it is what it is. 10k is the mark, but sometimes you get 12.5k word monsters like chapter 5 and sometimes you get 8k word shorties like this one.

This was by far the most difficult chapter for me to write. How do you try to rationalize and humanize a guy like Pain? He certainly comes off as a bit unstable in the manga considering recent chapters.

On the other hand, I started loving Pain's character when he was still the featureless AL that was always calm, cool, and on top of things. He clearly isn't a crazy nut-job if he can run an organization like Akatsuki. In fact, I found him incredibly out of character in his fight against Jiraiya and with his whole "I am a god" speech. I couldn't help but think that deep down he trying to tell Jiraiya to get the fuck out of Dodge before he got killed.

The guy has some logic and humanity in him – that much is certain.

Some of you may have noticed that I borrowed the "style" of attack that Pain utilizes from the recent chapters of the Konoha invasion. Pain has his own way of doing things. What can I say but, "awesome!"

There's only one more chapter in this opening "Rain" arc. Hopefully it won't take quite so long to bring you:

**Chapter 7:** _Achilles' Last Stand_ by Led Zeppelin.

And since we'll be starting a new arc, you get some extra time to ponder:

**Chapter 8:** _Twilight Zone_ by Golden Earring.

As always, feedback is much appreciated and constructive criticism doubly so.


	7. Achilles' Last Stand

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Posted: **11/19/08

**A/N:** Well, here it is, the end of the beginning. I hope everyone has enjoyed reading the Rain arc as much as I've enjoyed writing it, but I know that many of you are wondering to yourselves "just where is this story going?" You'll find out soon enough.

**Chapter Title: ** _Achilles' Last Stand_ by Led Zeppelin.

* * *

Naruto looked out from his high perch on the wall of one of the many monolithic towers littering Amegakure. From here he had a clear view of both the massive lake at the center of the city and a perfect line of sight down one of Ame's largest thoroughfares.

The only word he could use to describe the view was pandemonium.

The roads were packed with panicked villagers desperately trying to escape the center of the city where one of its largest buildings had just fallen into the reservoir. Naruto didn't think too much of them, knowing that anyone who exited the city would be picked up by Pain's forces holding positions around Amegakure for just such a purpose. Naruto watched solemnly as more buildings had their facades torn off and dumped into the streets as a result of the ongoing battle between the ninja of Ame and Naruto and Konan's interference.

As his clones were dispelled by hostile action or through their own intent, Naruto received constant updates on the situation at large. Fires had been set throughout the city by resident ninjas loyal to Pain's cause. There had been some indications early on that contact between loyalist Ame ninjas and Pain's followers had erupted into a number of small skirmishes as Pain's men fled the city.

Naruto had been quick to capitalize on that fact.

He currently had fifty-seven shadow clones in operation – only three of which were by his side. The others were operating in small groups to harass and confuse the resident Ame forces. They were all transformed into adult ninja of various builds sporting the markings of loyal Ame ninja.

Naruto's job was to stall and run interference for Pain, not to fight the entire city. If he could coerce Hanzou's men into doing his job for him, then all the better.

Most importantly, Naruto's clones were to be on the lookout for groupings of Ame ninja that appeared to be trying to make a push towards the center of the city to aid their leader. As far as Naruto could tell Hanzou liked to fight his battles alone, but he couldn't let that assumption rule out the possibility of loyal ninjas trying to push through to aid him in defending their home.

So far confusion and discord had been the words of the day, but Naruto refused to become complacent while his pseudo family's lives were at stake. The Ame ninja would regroup and they would come. The question was when.

"God damn."

Naruto turned his head and followed his clone's eyes to the massive lake in the city's center.

That was a big summon, alright.

* * *

"**I had wondered if you would be calling on me today." **Pain watched silently as the massive creature tilted its glistening head back and sniffed the air. Satisfied, the Salamander King turned its focus to the Six Paths of Pain, scrutinizing the figures with his dark, beady eyes. **"These ones banished the storm, then?"**

Hanzou kept his dark gaze on the figures below him. "So it would seem."

The salamander shifted slightly, its eyes panning across the water to take in the billowing smoke and wreckage of the city. **"Your subordinates?"**

"Indisposed, or so I am led to believe."

"**They are absent, are they not?"**

Hanzou finally looked down at the summon beneath him, treating it to an icy glare that it either didn't see or ignored. "They will not be assisting us. Not that their presence is necessary."

"**Very well. It is most likely better this way. Their participation would only endanger them."**

"It is irrelevant."

**"Do you truly wish to fight here, Hanzou? The danger to the city…"**

"There is no better stage for this battle. The city can be repaired, as you are no doubt aware."

The great salamander's eyes rolled then to stare at his rider, though his expression was unreadable. **"I was not speaking of paltry concrete and rebar, child."** Beady eyes shifted back to the cityscape surrounding them.

"It's too late to change venues now, Ajisuke. It's time to fight."

Pain had grown weary of their byplay. Taking advantage of the salamander's apparent distraction, a tall, bald figure stepped forward and quickly pointed his fisted hand at the summon's head before bracing his forearm with his opposite hand.

Hanzou's eyes followed the movement, but showed no obvious signs of acknowledging it or giving any warning to the summon below him - who still seemed intent on taking in the sights of the besieged village.

Even with five sets of eyes trained on Hanzou, Pain could barely make out the shift in Hanzou's weight as the fist of Demon Realm fired off towards the beast.

The moment Pain's attack was launched Ajisuke was already in motion. It seemed almost impossible that a creature so large could move with such agility, but a moment later Pain had resigned himself to fighting a hard battle here. The monster easily avoided the rocket fist and scampered with blinding speed to the side.

Pain met the inky black eyes of the great summon, who was watching him intently. Hanzou, however, stared back behind him across the reservoir, having followed the flight of the detached fist and its resultant damage.

The fist had punched a ten-foot hole through the side of Hanzou's command bunker. It was a respectable amount of damage in anyone's estimation.

The older ninja's head whipped around as the fist flew from the wreckage almost as fast as it had entered it and seamlessly reattached itself to the bald man's arm.

"Not clones then."

**"Some form of construct?"**

"It seems likely. Almost like a puppet."

"**That was not a mechanical attack."**

"Chakra aided?"

"**Most certainly."**

"A human puppet perhaps? I had heard rumors…"

**"Then where is the puppeteer?"**

"One of them, obviously."

"**There is more at work here than just a clever puppet master."**

"Perhaps we should test the water?"

Ajisuke wasted no time, spinning on the spot and digging a deep trench with his massive tail into the surface of the lake as he turned.

Pain simply stared as the din of rushing water swept across the battlefield, followed by a veritable tsunami nearly sixty feet high and moving at incredible speeds.

Hanzou watched carefully at the wall of water pushed on to the fallen tower and his foes. His eyebrows knitted together in a half scowl as the base of the wave bulged out unnaturally - right where the six puppets stood - and broke apart – the top of the wave crashing down behind them and then continuing on to wash over the high embankments that contained the reservoir and into the streets of Amegakure.

The body that had spoken earlier – the one that seemed to be the true enemy – stood before its companions and slowly lowered its outstretched arms even as another body – this one with long hair in a high ponytail – rose from its crouched position, completely ignoring the water retreating between their feet and back into the lake from Ajisuke's attack.

"**Two of them acted, at the least."**

"The first broke the wave somehow… a wind technique perhaps. The second…"

He was interrupted by a horrible roar from the Salamander King, who scampered across the water and turned to look back at its attacker. Hanzou reacted quickly as well, taking in the jagged gash on his partners rear left leg. It looked painful, but not severe.

**"A summoning!"**

Sure enough, out of the water rose what looked to be a large, sickly gray-brown rock followed by an ugly, beaked head. It was a massive turtle, though nothing as noble or appealing as those called on by the Turtle Contract. This monstrosity had a shell of rough, broken bumps. It was cracked and worn, and in some cases impaled by massive black spikes that seemed to reach deep within the creature's carapace. A similar spike stuck in through the creatures lower jaw where it could be seen jutting into the summon's fetid maw. Lifeless, metallic blue eyes regarded them impassively. Though slightly smaller than Ajisuke, its sinister appearance put both ninja and summon ill at ease. How it could even be alive was a mystery to the two seasoned warriors.

"How unsightly."

The turtle began to sink back into the depths, but Hanzou wouldn't have it. Before its head had even fully submerged the salamander ninja had finished his hand seals and narrowed his eyes in intensity.

No beast's carapace could stop Hanzou's thrust.

With a horrific groan the turtle rose out of the water as the top of its shell burst open to reveal a massive spike of ice impaling it through the middle from below. The summon disappeared in a cloud of smoke and a torrent of falling water. Relieved of its heavy burden, the ice spike - which was more of a tower on its own at over a hundred feet in length – bobbed up towards the sky like a cork and slowly, painfully fell over.

Right on top of Pain's makeshift bridge.

The six bodies scattered out onto the lake as the remains of the tower crumbled and groaned under the ice pillar, which came to rest propped up by the wreckage at a forty-five degree angle. Though Hanzou's attack was not enough to break the fallen tower completely, it had forced Pain to disperse for the moment. It was time to act.

"Left three."

"**Of course."**

Hanzou flashed through even more seals, causing the water about Ajisuke to roil madly before leaping out towards three of Pain's bodies - who had abandoned their perch for the water's surface - in massive torrent of liquid - as if a giant fire hose had been brought to bear against them. At the same time, the Salamander King let loose a mighty roar as bright lightning arced from his body and onto Hanzou's geyser, causing it to boil and crackle with angry electricity even as it rushed towards the recovering figures.

The old ninja watched intently as one of the three – the fat one – leapt forward into the deadly stream. No one had ever survived this combination attack without avoiding or, in the one case, neutralizing it. Hanzou disliked advanced bloodline users.

To his shock, instead of granting the fat figure electric death, the attack seemed to stop in its tracks and disappear. Hanzou once again found himself looking into the cold gray-blue eyes of his opponent as the large man lowered his outstretched hands…

Just before the figure crouched low as Hanzou burst from the water behind him and swept his leg viciously over the man's head.

The real Hanzou watched impassively atop Ajisuke as his shadow clone was quickly set upon by the other two nearby bodies – the long haired summoner and the bald man with the rocket fist technique.

"**The fat one managed to banish our attack."**

"He sealed it away. I've never seen an ability like it before."

The shadow clone had drawn a ninjatou shortsword but was quickly pressed by the three cloaked figures who had produced their own crude, black blades. A strong blow from the shadow Hanzou sheered off the end of the summoner's blade and forced him to duck low and stabilize himself with his hands on the water's surface to avoid losing his head at the neck.

"He summoned again."

"**I saw it."**

The shadow clone was finally stabbed by the bald body and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Overextended as it was from giving the finishing blow, the bald body could not hope to pull its arms and weapon back in to block the ninjatou that pierced up from just below its feet, propelled by another Hanzou clone.

The figure's cloak ripped open as two more arms tore through the fabric and caught the blade just before it pierced the underside of the Demon Realm's jaw. The clone only had enough time to widen its eyes in surprise as a wide, serrated, and razor-sharp tail sliced through the remains of the man's cloak and tore a massive gash in the second shadow clone's side before it too disappeared.

Hanzou grimaced as he watched the clearly mechanical man remove the rest of his ruined cloak to reveal six arms, three strange faces, and a long, flat tail.

He was distracted by a sudden rush of information from yet another submerged shadow clone dispelling itself. "Move!"

Ajisuke leapt to the side with his usual impressive agility but was still too slow as a twenty-foot-long serrated blade shot from the water and tore a long gash in the salamander's side.

Hanzou ignored his partner's loud hiss of pain and followed the form of a massive swordfish as it fell back into the water and disappeared into the depths.

As Hanzou contemplated this new summon and ways to dispose of it, Pain spoke again using his God Realm as his mouthpiece. "Don't become too distracted, Hanzou."

The Beast Realm placed his palms to the water once again, bringing forth a multi-headed dog that sported the same black spikes and cold, lifeless eyes to stand on the water. "It's over for you."

**"What sort of contract is this?"**

The strange dog's body contorted and stretched until it ripped apart, many bodies emerging from the one. Now eight dogs spread out on the glassy lake's surface to surround the massive salamander as the Six Paths of Pain regrouped on the soaked rubble of the fallen tower.

A deep cry once again sounded as Ajisuke was assaulted by the massive fish's deadly nose for a second time. This time the serrated blade sheered off the tip of the salamander's tail before disappearing from view - barely avoiding an angry swipe from what was left of the Salamander King's tail. Ajisuke stomped and growled while tossing about ten foot waves every which way and further disrupting the calm waters.

**"I grow tired of this! Hanzou! Prepare yourself!"**

Pain could only blink as Hanzou jumped off of the beast's back and onto the water. The enormous salamander dove quickly and fluidly below the water's surface - barely causing any disturbance to mark his passing.

Hanzou stood calmly on the water and turned to address Pain, ignoring completely the summons surrounding him. "I think you'll like this. He gets temperamental when he loses his tail." Shifting his gaze to the now still surface of the lake he took a wide stance, still ignoring his audience. "I suppose this is goodbye, then. I'll tell you, at least, that your techniques were impressive." He finally brought his black eyes up to meet Pain's own. "But no one has survived Lord Ajisuke's rage. It will be over quickly, which is more than I can say you deserve."

Pain turned eight sets of eyes to observe every conceivable point of attack. There was almost no way that the amphibian could come from below when there was a whole building between them. He moved his bodies close together, preparing to take action no matter which direction an attack came from.

That's when he noticed a bright light emanating from below the water's surface, deep in the lake below Hanzou. Pain furrowed his brows and quickly looked down at his feet.

The ruins of the fallen building were still soaked from Ajisuke's tsunami.

"Farewell, Pain."

* * *

"What the hell is that?"

Naruto once again followed his clone's gaze to fall on the lake at the city center.

So far he hadn't run into any major problems. The Ame ninjas were thankfully slow to regroup today, in part thanks to Naruto's efforts to sow dissention amongst their ranks. His clones had run across a few small groups pressing towards the city center, but it was usually just a matter of firing off a few jutsus and coordinating his clones to force them into a retreat.

He hoped that his luck held.

Focusing on the quarantined battlefield, Naruto first noticed that Hanzou's massive summon was no longer visible, but that a number of large canines stood atop the water's surface in a rough circle. At the center he could barely make out a lone figure. It was probably that bastard Hanzou.

But that wasn't what his clone was pointing out. A bright glow was slowly building from deep within the reservoir, increasing in intensity with every second. He was about to reply to his clone when the world exploded in white, painful light and a horrible din of thunder assaulted his ears from every conceivable direction. It was easily the loudest thing he'd ever heard.

Once again Naruto was thankful that his eyes could rapidly adjust to changes in light levels, as it gave him the opportunity to see what others could not. White lightning was arcing over every inch of the lake and even bled into and down every canal in Amegakure. Naruto could tell that nearly anyone who came in contact with that attack on the lake was dead, and for a brief moment fear welled up in his chest – not for himself, but for Pain.

He fought the feeling down. Pain wasn't about to lose any time soon.

His vision of the lake was partially obscured by massive amounts of steam rolling off of the water throughout the city, but Naruto could tell that the dog summons had been destroyed. He couldn't make out any other figures, however.

"Shit."

Naruto's head snapped around to see another of his clones pointing down to the canal running alongside the building he was perched on. "Shit."

There were bodies in the water – ninja bodies. All dressed in Ame garb. Naruto could make out about twenty figures below him on the water's surface. Many were still. Some floated face down while others drifted lifelessly along with the currents. Some were twitching horribly while a small number – maybe three or four – struggled valiantly to reach the edge of the canal.

One man was even dragging one of the twitching bodies along with him.

These Ame ninjas all used underwater breathing equipment! Naruto had completely neglected to post sentries to keep a watch on the canals for ninjas trying to sneak by underwater. He had been very lucky - and the men below him very unlucky - that they had been caught in what Naruto could only assume was one of Hanzou's jutsus.

He'd killed his own men with that one, not that he could have known. Naruto wondered if the militant man would even care.

Quickly he dispelled one of his clones, alerting all of his copies in the field to the possibility of a submarine strike, and made his way down toward the surviving Ame ninjas.

They would need to be taken care of.

* * *

Hanzou relaxed his focus as Ajisuke's jutsu ran its course. It had taken many months of intense training to learn to properly channel that much external lighting energy through his body without suffering any ill effects.

It was a feat that only a true master of the lightning element could achieve.

Opening his eyes, he scanned the lake surface quickly and expertly. There was no sense in leaving himself open to attack if by some fluke his enemy had survived.

The odd dogs were gone – destroyed by the lightning – as was Pain's monster fish. Ajisuke would have made sure to remove it first and foremost for its attack upon him. Finally his eyes traced over to where the tower had fallen and Pain's puppets had last stood.

He could not yet make out the dead forms of his opponents through the thick steam, but he was sure that they were dead. The wreckage had been completely soaked through the clever tactics of the Salamander King. So few Grand Summons existed in the world, and they were so coveted, that most opponents simply looked at them for their size and brute strength rather than their cunning and resourcefulness.

Hanzou knew better than most what an advantage having a being older than any living human on his side could provide. Ajisuke had taught him just as much about battle tactics as his old master had when he was still a small boy.

He didn't need to turn his head as he heard the sound of water flowing off of the back of his old ally. Ajisuke rose smoothly from the depths to stand on the water's surface once again and began looking, along with Hanzou, for any sign of their quarry.

**"Did you see the summons' eyes?"**

"They were unsettling. I didn't pay them much mind."

"**They were all the same, a ripple-like pattern on metallic blue."**

Hanzou shifted his head to look up at the large amphibian. "Those are the same eyes that the human puppets had." While Hanzou generally appraised an unfamiliar summon by size, type, and intelligence, he knew just how much a ninja's eyes could give away. His clones had sent him back memories of Pain's strange eyes from up close.

**"It is difficult to remember… but I believe their eyes hold some significance. A story I heard in my youth."**

Hanzou leapt to Ajisuke's head and continued to gaze through the steam, hoping to catch a glimpse of his fallen adversaries before risking an approach. "Do you see any of those six bastards yet?"

**"Six! That was it. The Sage of the Six Paths!"**

"What of him? He's been dead for centuries now - nothing more than a tall tale that ninja parents tell their children as a bedtime story."

**"Those eyes are the eyes of the Rinnegan – the greatest eye technique in all history. I'm sure of it!"**

"You expect me to believe that this man is a descendent of the Sage and that he possesses the bloodline that created ninjutsu? You'll excuse me if I seem a bit skeptical."

Hanzou was torn from his discussion by a third voice cutting in – one that made his blood boil.

"Ah. Found out am I? I'm impressed by your knowledge, Lord Ajisuke, though it will do you little good."

Both summon and summoner raised their eyes to the voice, high above the water. Hanzou let out a snarl of fury as he gazed upon his ice spear – still pointing high above the lake's surface – and the six figures affixed to it having stabbed their dark blades deep into the ice for leverage.

Ajisuke spoke in an abnormally subdued tone. **"I have little energy left, Hanzou. This foe may very well be beyond us for now…"**

Hanzou's furious eyes bore down upon his summon and he snarled again, this time directing his ire upon the beast below him. "I will not retreat, Ajisuke! I will triumph! I refuse to flee like a coward again – like a whipped dog! You convinced me, against my better judgement, to do so in the past and I've regretted it every day since then!" The master ninja paused to catch his breath and stomp down, hard, on the salamander's head.

"I will not live with that shame again!"

The Salamander King let loose a growl of his own and with a quick toss of his head sent Hanzou to the lake's surface where he landed lightly.

**"Then you will die with that shame, fool! Time and again I have warned you against your love of battle – of your obsession with reputation and infamy – yet you refuse to listen! We were lucky in the beginning, boy, but your luck will eventually favor another and what will you have left to you then? Nothing!"**

"I make my own luck! I am the greatest ninja there has ever been, and I'll prove it today by defeating this upstart, Rinnegan or no!"

**"One does not live to be as old as I am by taking undue risks. I will not fight a battle that we stand little chance of winning. What do you know of this man's powers, Hanzou? Of his limits? Look at him! He stands there, content to listen to us argue like children while already assured of his victory. I will not give my life here for your pride!"**

Hanzou gave one last murderous look to his companion of old before turning to face the cloaked figures of Pain with madness in his eyes. "Then I have no use for you. Leave me."

The Salamander King appraised Hanzou with what might be considered a mournful expression before speaking one last time. **"Then farewell, old friend. Perhaps in the hereafter you will finally find your humility."**

And with that Ajisuke, Lord of the Salamanders, was gone.

* * *

Naruto was finally moving.

A moment ago one of his clones had dismissed himself, sending Naruto the information that he knew was coming but did not want to get.

The Ame ninjas were organized and ready to move. Nearly forty of them.

Naruto had to break them up before they tried to push through to the city center or he'd be lucky to stop them at all.

He landed with his three escorts on a high building overlooking a wide plaza built alongside one of the city's major canals. The Ame ninjas were gathered below in the center of the plaza counting weapons and checking gear. From here they had a straight path along the canal to the central reservoir.

Naruto created three new clones and sent them on their way - transformed to look like Ame ninjas once again - with the added small cuts and bruises that were characteristic of ninjas just coming from combat. It would be best to see if he could glean any tricks they might be planning before he attacked in force.

The clones landed twenty feet away from the edge of the group and approached slowly. The one that Naruto had designated to take the lead stepped forward. "Thank God we found all of you. There are shadow clones all over town disguised as Ame ninja. We just barely made it out of the western district." The clone paused as a man garbed in the familiar battle dress of Hanzou's Guard stepped forward to address them.

"We know about the clones."

The lead clone looked back to his comrades, who gave him small nods. It was only for show, of course, but Naruto had learned quickly that even though his clones did not often need to confer with one another over planning issues - they were all of the same mindset, after all - others still expected them to behave like normal, autonomous individuals. Turning back to the Guardsman the lead clone spoke again. "You're in charge here?"

"That's correct."

"What are you planning? Lord Hanzou is fighting at the city center as we speak."

"We will be aiding him of course." Pulling a kunai swiftly from a pouch on his waist, he flipped it easily to the first clone. "I need to see you bleed. You understand of course."

He did understand. He'd been found out by such a simple method it was almost unbelievable. Even a small cut would destabilize his chakra structure and force him to burn through his reserves at alarming speed, and the Ame ninjas knew this. They were probably having all new arrivals give themselves a small flesh wound just to confirm that they were actually people.

The clone couldn't hold together for more than a minute after being cut. The real Naruto hadn't expected this and hadn't had time to prepare for an attack as far as he knew. All the clone could do was stall for as long as possible and hope that Naruto would be ready to let loose an attack by the time he dispelled and informed the Ame ninjas gathered here that they had been found out by a shadow clone and that an attack was likely imminent.

He stared at the kunai for a moment, stalling for time. Then inspiration struck and he sniffed it before giving the Guardsman an odd look. The Ame ninjas nearby tensed up a bit at the reluctance of the clone.

The green-cloaked man tensed up a moment while scrutinizing the clones. "Well?"

"We'll use our own kunai, thanks. No telling what manner of nastiness you put on yours." The clone tossed the kunai back easily before turning his head sideways and giving a small nod to the other two clones.

He received a frown. "It's not poisoned, if that's your worry."

"You don't mind if we use our own, do you?" The three clones pulled out kunais of their own from their packs.

"Just hurry up already!" This came from a younger man standing behind the leader who appeared to be on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. Probably a green chuunin who'd never experienced a situation like this before.

The lead clone made a discreet signal with his empty left hand and the three clones leapt into action, slinging their kunais hard into the crowd. They weren't thrown at anyone in particular, but scoring a hit wasn't the point.

When the small explosive tags wrapped tightly around the handles of the weapons detonated the three clones were already in motion - ignoring the smoke and yells coming from in front of them. They followed the kunais into the panicked crowd, prepared to cause as much discord as possible.

The first clone met its end on the tip of the Guardsman's ninjatou, though its last thoughts were of the priceless expression on the cloaked man's face as the clone exploded not more than a foot in front of him.

At first glance, the Clone Explosion technique appears to most untested ninja as a brilliant and versatile ability. Allowing one's clones to cause damage even in death, as a diversion, or an attack should be the envy of every shinobi. Unfortunately, the technique was anything but perfect. Not only did it require a shadow clone with a good deal of chakra to initiate but it was extraordinarily wasteful and not particularly powerful either. In essence, the Clone Explosion took all of the chakra in a shadow clone – chakra that would normally return to the user with the clone's demise – and dispersed it in a violent explosion. The chakra wasn't molded in any complex fashion and therefore did not transform power to purpose well at all.

In short, it was a desperation technique – or one that you wouldn't ever use if you expected to be in an extended fight afterwards.

The other two clones dashed in behind the leader, ignoring the spray of gore that splashed over them from the first clone's attack. Finding two more targets deeper in the ranks, the clones moved in just as quickly - one managing to detonate on top of a clearly shell-shocked man while the other exploded after taking four kunai hits to the torso from various Ame ninjas who had managed to regain their wits.

Naruto's main attack came only moments later as literally hundreds of kunais rained down on the multitude below, but not before nearly half of them could leap away in small groups. The stalling actions of the first three clones had set many of the ninjas on edge and the explosive attacks had set them moving.

Fifty new Naruto clones looked down on the smoky scene is dismay. He had thrown away the element of surprise he had been counting on and was now facing nearly twenty uninjured enemies with possibly ten more suffering from kunai and shrapnel wounds of varying severity.

That was a problem.

The Ame ninjas were already moving up the buildings and engaging his clones at every turn. They must have been fed up with his deceptive tactics and wanted to really cause some damage. Jutsus began flying from every direction and Naruto was assaulted by the memories of his clones being destroyed in rapid succession. He could tell that a number of his clones had managed to knock some opponents back down to the plaza far below with more large area wind techniques, but keeping up so many clones for so long had already taken a toll on even Naruto's large chakra reserves and he was beginning to consider taking a more conservative tack, lest he find himself in trouble due to chakra depletion.

Using Kyuubi's power here just wasn't an option. Not only did it damage him constantly, but after it had run its course it always left Naruto horribly weakened and defenseless - which was not a situation he wanted to find himself in in the middle of a city full of hostile ninjas.

Naruto was so distracted by the pandemonium below him that he barely had time to notice a slight disturbance in the air before a kunai lodged itself squarely in his side. Through the pain he could hear his three escorts vaporize into puffs of smoke as he quickly leapt from the side of the building he was perched on to one directly across a narrow alleyway from it.

He found his assailants almost immediately – three more of Hanzou's Guardsmen that had ambushed him from above. They hadn't been down in the plaza just a moment ago.

The three looked nearly ready to attack again when a rogue kunai flew towards them from below and causing them to scatter before it exploded in a bright ball of fire.

At least one of Naruto's clones was looking out for him – even if it did have its own fight down below.

Naruto quickly made three more clones and stopped to gasp in surprise.

He really felt that. His chakra levels were even lower than he had feared.

With a grunt he jerked the kunai out of his side and threw hard at one of the scattered Ame ninjas, who parried it with his own kunai rather easily. A bright light drew his attention around to see a massive ball of fire flying towards him from another of the Guardsmen, but he quickly noticed that the course was off – it would hit almost fifteen feet above him.

He was surprised when one of his clones had to pull him out of the way of the falling debris from the resulting explosion. He hadn't even thought that the enemy ninja's aim might have been intentional.

In the back of Naruto's mind he reluctantly acknowledged that the fatigue and chaos of battle was quickly diminishing his better judgment and reflexes.

One of his clones jumped in front of a brace of kunais, preventing them from causing serious damage to him, while another was beheaded by one of the charging ninjas.

The final clone joined him in unleashing as many kunais as possible at their opponents but they were easily thwarted by their skilled foes. These were no standard ANBU agents who performed all sorts of menial duties and patrols – Hanzou took his safety very seriously.

The nearest ninja landed not ten feet from Naruto on the same face of the structure that Naruto had found purchase on, ninjatou drawn to deliver the killing blow.

It was too late to even draw on Kyuubi's chakra now. At very best the ninja might miss a vital point and Kyuubi could heal through the damage before Naruto succumbed to further attacks, but given Naruto's state and his opponent's level of skill that would be a miracle.

The man would probably put his sword through Naruto's head.

The Guardsman crouched low to build power for his final leap, but suddenly let out a gasp of pain and horror as he lost traction on the wall and began to fall to the plaza far below, screaming in a decidedly undignified manner all the way down.

Naruto could just barely see the bloodied backs of his ankles where his tendons had been cut through.

The other two Ame ninjas paused for a brief moment in surprise before the sound of rushing wind drowned out the din of the ongoing battle far below and their wide eyes were obscured by a cyclone of purest white.

Naruto didn't even hear them scream as they were shredded and their lifeless bodies dropped to join their fallen comrade on the ground below.

"Bite off more than you could chew?"

Naruto sighed in relief and a bit of exasperation. "Could you help the clones down there?"

Konan's floating head nodded and turned to observe the ruined plaza below. Most of Naruto's clones were dead now, and many of the victorious Ame ninjas had returned to assist their wounded comrades in the center of the square.

Konan closed her eyes for a moment and the cyclone of paper that had so recently cut down three men reformed into her original body. Instead of legs and feet, however, the excess paper had come together as two enormous white wings sprouting from the blue haired woman's back.

Opening her eyes, the wings broke apart into their component sheets of paper and raced to the plaza below, folding themselves into more aerodynamic shapes as they fell.

Konan's Paper Kunai Downpour covered nearly the entire plaza in hundreds upon hundreds of razor sharp projectiles, killing nearly all of the oblivious Ame shinobis.

Naruto grimaced as he took in the sea of corpses littering the ground below. "How is Pain doing?"

Konan looked at him and a small smile graced her lips. "He's winning of course. Hanzou's summon just abandoned the battlefield and the old man is livid." The smile fled her face as she turned in midair and looked down the canal to the reservoir. "Find someplace where you can rest a bit and watch the battle. You've done enough for today."

Naruto nodded. "Alright."

"Hanzou is very dangerous right now. Don't let him see you and no matter what happens, don't join the battle and don't go near the water. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Konan."

She nodded, and with a rushing of wind and a flurry of paper, she was gone.

* * *

The Six Paths of Pain dropped down from the ice pillar to the battered wreckage of the tower once again and gazed at Hanzou impassively. "You've even managed to estrange your staunchest ally, impressive."

"Be silent, boy. You know nothing of me, nor will you ever. After this day, you will know nothing altogether! I don't need help to defeat a whelp like you, nor do I need to hide behind puppets for fear of my life! I am feared above all for a reason!" He crouched low and took a wide stance, his arms hung loosely at his sides and his dark eyes shook with his madness. If not for Hanzou's re-breather, Pain imagined that the man would be frothing at the mouth. His voice was little more than a snarl now. "And before this day is through you will know it!"

Pain readied himself for an attack, but could only narrow his eyes as the older man began to sink into the water. After a moment, he was gone.

Pain was wary. Hanzou was always said to be unbeatable in the water, and it looked like Pain would have to disprove that notion if he were to emerge victorious in this fight.

For a while, nothing seemed to be happening. It was only the innocent sloshing of water washing up against the side of the wreckage that hinted that something had changed. The seconds ticked by and the sloshing increased.

The current was picking up, sending larger and larger waves against the side of the fallen tower - which was only a few feet above the water level to begin with. Soon the water was washing over the side of the tower to run over the sandals of Pain's Six Paths. Still, there was no imminent danger and not much to be done.

A set of blue-gray eyes trailed out over the water and came to rest on a small disturbance forming a short ways from the end of the tower-bridge. Pain recognized it immediately as a small whirlpool – one that he was sure promised to become a large problem. It grew in size at a rapid pace - sucking down water into the depths of the reservoir and causing a powerful current to pick up. Soon the waves breaking up against the fallen wreckage were washing over the entire width of the bridge.

Pain would have to move soon.

A horrible smashing was the only warning that Pain had before three more enormous ice spears broke through the wreckage of the tower from below – though none were close enough to do Pain harm.

That didn't matter though, because now the tower was shattered and the current was slowly taking it away – a piece at a time. The ice spires fell into the water and drifted along as the concrete, glass, and steel of the building was swallowed by the gaping maelstrom.

Weighing his options quickly, Pain relocated his six Paths to two of the bobbing ice pillars that floated along like enormous, frigid logs in a river. At least they would float.

Another spear of ice broke the water's surface at the God Realm's feet, lancing upwards to tear his body in half.

Time stood still as the spear buckled and cracked. In an instant it had disintegrated – the only evidence of its passing was the massive crater formed in the water's surface that was quickly replaced by the turbulent currents.

Making his decision, Pain went on the offensive. The stern-faced Hell Realm, the corpulent Hungry Ghost Realm, and the tall, impassive Human Realm leapt without hesitation into the dangerous whirlpool.

It was just what Hanzou had been waiting for.

He had been treading water near the bottom of the reservoir only feet from the base of the whirlpool waiting for Pain to either make a move or be drawn down into the depths. His jutsu took a great deal of power to initiate, but only a small trickle of chakra and concentration to maintain once it had reached its full effect.

Three of the puppets had jumped into the water and were being sucked down by the swirling current. Despite their best efforts, they were being pulled and spun by the maelstrom and constantly drawn in towards the center.

Understandably, they stayed near the surface of the lake. After floundering for a moment or two, the three figures began to swim together with the current, doing their best to fight the pull of the water from sucking them towards the center.

Hanzou could handle three of them in the water, he was sure. Using a simple trick to move swiftly through the liquid by infusing the thin layer around his body with his chakra, he sped like a torpedo up towards the three, cloaked men.

Seeing him approach, they grouped together and slid out their strange, black blades.

Hanzou didn't bother drawing his weapon. He didn't plan on a clash of blades here - not when he held such an advantage.

Without slowing, he _pushed_ with his chakra sending a compact bubble of water at the three and knocking them apart. Struggling against the current, Pain's bodies had no way to regroup before Hanzou set upon the Human Realm.

The longhaired man raised his blade in defense, but could only narrow his eyes as Hanzou stopped not ten feet from him, his right hand stretched towards the lone figure. The older man slowly closed his fist, angry lines adorning his visible face, and the Human Realm's arms snapped in against its body as its hair and cloak did the same.

Hanzou savored the moment as he viciously crushed the life out of the body before him despite the indifferent expression on his opponent's face.

Then with a quick pop and a rush of water, the Human Realm was gone.

Hanzou whipped around in fury - trying to find his lost quarry - only to notice that both of the other puppets were absent as well. It had been a space/time ninjutsu. He truly hated those.

That was when he heard a dozen small splashes from twenty feet above him at the surface. He widened his eyes in shock as the metal canisters sunk quickly to his level, practically surrounding him.

They exploded.

Pain watched impassively atop his icy raft as a dozen geysers shot skyward and gave himself a mental nod as the swirling waters of Hanzou's whirlpool slowly settled back into a glassy sheet. The Demon Realm fiddled with one of his arms – rearranging it so that it functioned normally once again.

He doubted that Hanzou had been prepared to deal with that level of concussive force underwater.

Sure enough, after only a minute's wait the mirror surface of the reservoir was broken as Salamander Hanzou clambered unceremoniously to stand face to face with Pain once again. He ripped off his re-breather – no more than a twisted hunk of metal now, mangled as it was in the explosion – and gasped for air, blood dripping from his pale, thin lips and sliding down the sides of his neck in thin rivulets from his abused ears. He had only survived due to the shell of water around him that he had seized control of and held back the majority of the pressure with.

Hanzou's head spun and his vision blurred. He had never been this injured before – this beaten. It disgusted him.

The sounds of footfalls on the water around him confirmed that Pain had finally moved in after fighting nearly the entire battle at a distance. He was very clever – Hanzou would at least say that of the man.

"It's over, Hanzou. You've run your race, and now it's time to die."

Dark eyes swiveled up to meet those of his opponent. The same young man who had first appeared before him stood not twenty feet away while the others spread out evenly around Hanzou in a circle, ready to give the final blow.

His voice was raspy and choked, but his words rang across the lake like a death knell. "As confident as ever. I suppose it's to be expected of a self-proclaimed god, but if pride is my weakness, then surely arrogance is yours. Perhaps you will find your humanity when faced with a true deity."

Like the lightning jutsus he was known for, Hanzou's hands came together at incredible speed and flashed through seal after seal.

Pain had only a second to react before thick streams of super-heated plasma leapt from Hanzou's body and into the air around him in an explosion of electricity.

"There's no escape for you. This is the end!"

* * *

Naruto gasped at the sight before him from atop a tall building overlooking the reservoir. A web of white lightning branched out in every direction from Hanzou for over a hundred feet, but surprisingly didn't charge the water.

This had been the technique that Hanzou had used to clear his shadow clones during their first encounter, he was sure of it!

Pain was caught in that blast though, and would be hard pressed to overcome such a jutsu.

Especially since the lightning hadn't receded. Instead the bolts of searing light licked the air in a wide dome on the lake's surface, as if Hanzou had become some high-powered electric dynamo that wouldn't shut off.

How could anyone even touch a man surrounded by _that_?

He couldn't make out anything through the lightning storm.

Where was Pain?

* * *

He reacted quickly.

It was all he could do.

He had only one body that could withstand this technique.

So he put it to good use.

Quickly he summoned all of his bodies to Beast Realm, at Hanzou's ten o'clock.

The man's black eyes tracked him with a hint of surprise, but he didn't let his technique up. It was all he had left.

Hungry Ghost Realm leapt forward, hands outstretched, and sealed away the vicious plasma while protecting his five brethren behind him. He slid out his black blade and advanced.

Hanzou smiled.

Both knew who would come out on top of a one on one melee.

Hungry Ghost Realm crouched low, ready to spring. His arms were still outstretched above and in front of his body, shielding those behind.

Hanzou's dark eyes flicked up and over the fat man's head.

God Realm pointed with steel in his eyes.

_Come hither, old man._

And Salamander Hanzou - renowned the world over for his power, his ruthlessness, his prudence, his resolve, and, strangely enough, even sometimes for his mercy - found himself stuck on the dark blade of Pain.

_Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust._

In the end, his pride had killed him.

* * *

"Come with me."

Naruto followed Pain through the winding, dreary gray hallways of Hanzou's bunker, trusting that the rusty haired man knew where they were going.

Naruto had absolutely no idea.

They were going down though. By now they were certainly below the reservoir.

After nearly ten minutes of walking they finally turned a corner to find an open door leading to what looked like a library and office. There was even a small yet comfortable looking cot in a corner. Naruto wondered if every ninja of note had his own library.

Pain walked to join his Demon Realm incarnation who was standing silently next to a bare wall.

As he passed the shelves, Naruto's eyes traveled over row after row of simple notebooks with scratchy titles that seemed to be handwritten. On each shelf was inscribed the insignia of a ninja village – some taking more than one shelf.

"Go ahead. Their author won't mind."

Naruto glanced at Pain for a moment before reaching out and taking the first notebook that caught his fancy from the shelf marked with a spiraled leaf.

"The Sannin of Konoha?" He put it back and took the next. "Orochimaru of the Sannin" The next. "Jiraiya of the Sannin… Tsunade of the Sannin." He pulled another from the right. "Hatake Sakumo – Konoha's White Fang." All of the notebooks were handwritten in the same, ugly scrawl.

"They're Hanzou's notes. Every ninja worth his notice that he ever met or heard of has a notebook about him here. I suppose you could say it's the world's most comprehensive Bingo Book. Hanzou was always very thorough."

Naruto's eyes slowly panned to the left – to the notebook that came after Tsunade's. "Then…" Slowly he pulled it off the shelf and turned to look at the simple cover.

_Namikaze Minato – Konoha's Yellow Flash._

Then, a few inches below it, in the same writing though clearly written at a later time, read:

_Fourth Hokage of Konohagakure._

Naruto smiled.

"You can read them later. For now we have other matters that require our attention."

Pain turned to scrutinize the bare concrete wall for a moment, before stepping back and allowing the Demon Realm to take his place. The strange figure – still bare-chested without his cloak - drew back all three of his right arms and drove them into the wall, shattering the concrete and prying away the rubble to reveal a hidden chamber not much larger than a broom closet. Pain stepped forward and withdrew a long cylinder - nearly three feet across - from the space and held it out to Naruto.

It was a scroll – beautifully decorated with all shades of blue and vibrant yellow in the likeness of a raging storm. Naruto took it slowly before looking up to Pain for instruction.

"Do you remember what I taught you about summoning contracts?"

Naruto blinked. "They are a pact formed between nin-animals and ninjas to call on one another to aid in battle. Is this a contract?"

"You hold in your hands the infamous Salamander Contract. Now open it up and sign your name in blood next to Hanzou's, then come with me to the surface."

Fifteen minutes later they stood together on the Great Reservoir staring out at the fallen city. It was relatively quiet now thanks to Pain's forces finally moving in and easily overcoming the feeble resistance that remained.

After seeing their invincible commander fall, few were willing to continue the fight.

Now the city was quarantined and patrolled heavily by the victorious ninjas. Reports had come in that a number of loyal Ame shinobis had broken the blockade around the city and escaped, but they would be taken care of in due time.

It was time to start rebuilding Rain Country.

"Do you remember how to perform the summoning?"

Naruto regarded Pain carefully for a moment. "Show me the hand seals again?"

Pain's hands flashed through the short sequence, but Naruto's trained eyes caught the seals as they were formed – mostly because he was expecting them. The black nail polish that Pain and Konan both wore always threw him off a bit – but that was the whole point. Instead of allowing the eye to focus on the seal as a whole, the flashing black would draw the observer's attention to the swift movements of the fingertips. It was a basic - but clever - trick.

"Alright."

"You should draw on some of Kyuubi's chakra for this, it is a grand summoning after all."

Naruto concentrated hard on drawing forth a bit of Kyuubi's power into his chakra coils, being careful not to let it escape his body and form a malignant shroud. Drawing some blood with his ungloved hands and flashing through the hand seals, he slammed his charged hands to the water's surface and hoped for the best.

He was not disappointed.

In a rush of wind and smoke the Salamander King appeared once again in Amegakure standing tall, if a bit beaten, before Naruto and Pain.

The old Salamander King said nothing for a moment, and like the first time he was summoned he took his time scanning his surroundings, pausing to note the five Paths standing in a silent row atop Hanzou's bunker before turning his attention to the small boy and the sixth Path before him.

**"It is done, then?"**

"Hanzou is dead, yes."

**"And why have you signed my contract without my consent? Did you call me here simply to gloat? To destroy me as well? You already have a perverted contract of sorts, do you not?**

"It was not I who called you."

**"Then who?"**

Pain's head turned to regard the boy standing silently yet defiantly beside him.

**"This child? Surely you jest?"**

This caused the blond boy to narrow his eyes dangerously. "I did summon you, you overgrown tadpole!"

The summon's beady eyes stared at him impassively. **"What is your name, boy?"**

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"

**"Uzumaki? How disappointing. I had begun to think that perhaps you were the child that escaped Hanzou not so long ago. It was the first time in a long while that I had to listen to him complain about the Namikaze clan, and to be honest, it was rather irksome."**

"That was me!"

The salamander replied quickly, as though expecting such a response despite the boy's earlier claim. **"Then why do you not use your father's name, boy? Is that not the way with you humans?**

"He gave me my mother's name to protect me."

The summon cocked its head to the side. **"You still rely on your parents' protection then, do you?"**

"Of course not!"

**"Then why hide your heritage, child? I can only imagine that you have called me here to offer an alliance between us, yet I will not aid a man who cannot stand proudly on his name of all things."**

"Then I will call myself Namikaze. It makes no difference to me."

The massive creature turned its head away and stared off into the distance. **"No difference, you say? A name is who you are from the moment you are laid bare to the world. Your name is your birthright, not a shield of convenience. Your name, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, has been, and always will be, Namikaze. It is a reality that you should embrace, not feign indifference to."**

Naruto frowned as he contemplated the salamander's words. "I think I understand. A name isn't everything, but it is important."

**"You are still young - even younger than Hanzou was when he stumbled upon my home - which is a blessing on you and perhaps on me as well. Understanding will come later, I think. I will aid you if you agree to the same terms I made with Hanzou all those years ago. Protect my home of Rain Country with all your heart and soul and I will lend my aid in every endeavor, so long as your aims are true. My family is small and precious to me, so you will be unable to summon them in battle as you would with a similar contract. Only I will answer your call. You will meet with me within one month's time so that we may learn more of one another."**

"Um, what is your name, sir, if you don't mind my asking?"

**"I am Ajisuke, King of Salamanders and Guardian of the Stormplains."**

Naruto smiled widely. "Pleased to meet you, Ajisuke."

**"And you as well, Namikaze Naruto."** He closed his eyes in concentration to unsummon himself, but seemed to think better of it and opened his eyes once more.

**"One last thing. If you happen, by chance, to come across the Grand Summon of the Toad Contract, by all means call me. Our last meeting was a bit embarrassing for Hanzou and myself, and I worry that the whelp may be gaining a big head. Of course I'll be sure to introduced my new partner as well."**

"If you say so."

**"Farewell for now, Naruto. When next you see me we may not part on such amenable terms."**

Naruto was almost sure he saw an evil grin spread across the old salamander's face before he disappeared in an ocean of smoke.

* * *

"A memorial to the dead?"

"A brilliant façade, is it not?"

"You don't think that it's a bit too much?"

Pain turned from the impressive foundation below them to face Naruto. "It is simply a symbol to them – no different from any other memorial. It will also serve as a perfect location to situate ourselves. Were you not the one complaining about the cave?"

"It just seems a bit weird is all."

"Perhaps, but it is the best option." Pain turned his head up to look at the blue sky above - obscured only by a few wayward clouds. "We've won a great victory here in Rain Country, but we still have much work ahead of us. This was only the first step. I hope you are ready, Naruto."

"I am, Pain. You'll see."

* * *

Naruto squinted his eyes as he pored over the paper before him, his mouth pulled down into a grimace.

"This can't be right, what sort of moron drew up this list?"

Pain turned to stare at him for a moment, before returning to many similar sheets of paper laid before him.

"I did."

Naruto's face bore a look of confusion that Pain dutifully ignored.

"What do you mean? Some of these people… age eighty-four? Eighty-eight? This one is only six!"

"They are part of the old regime and must be eliminated."

Naruto blinked in stupefaction.

"Naruto, listen to me. I understand your reservations. These people have done nothing wrong. But you have to understand that this isn't about justice. It isn't about feelings, or fate, or any other idealistic nonsense. It's about making a point."

Naruto just stared.

"These people benefited, either directly or indirectly, from Hanzou's regime - a regime that drove this country into the ground. In order to achieve legitimacy I have two options – either take Hanzou's place and become a new tyrant or be seen to take action against each and every thing that that man stood for and become something more than just another monster. I can kill one man – Hanzou – and be called a murderer, or I can kill a thousand and be called a god. That, Naruto, is the reality we live in. One man cannot keep peace in this country – any country. I cannot be one man. Do you understand?"

Naruto stayed silent for a long while as he digested Pain's words. This was part of being a ninja too, wasn't it? Doing things that you didn't particularly like?

"You told me that you were ready, Naruto. Are you ready?"

* * *

**A/N:** This chapter was extraordinarily difficult to write not only because making an interesting fight is hard in and of itself but because I wasn't too sure of how much of the fight I wanted to show.

Initially, I only wanted brief glimpses to shine through and to focus on what Naruto was doing more, but as I got more and more reviews for chapter six it occurred to me that people really, really wanted to see this fight.

Now that it's over, I can tell you that there won't be a fight like this for a very long time. It was honestly exhausting to plan it out. If you liked it, then I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. If you didn't, then I hope you stay with this story anyways as, like I said, there won't be another one of these monsters for a long time coming.

I kept putting off starting to write this until I was at the public library a few days ago, looked up, and low and behold saw a book on salamanders staring me right in the face.

No kidding, right?

Anyways, that's it for the first arc of _Houses of the Holy_. I hope you all enjoyed this somewhat original take on the untold history of the Narutoverse. In the end, it was my compromise between typing pages and pages of training and other boring development and skipping straight through to his return to Konoha as a super ninja.

Arc 2 is coming right up, and Naruto is off to Wave Country to battle the evil Demon of the Mist!

Will Naruto triumph? Will he make his first friend? Have his first crush? How will he like Sasuke? Will Kakashi beat him like a drum and call him an evil demon monster thing? Will Naruto teach Inari to never give up? Will Haku teach him an important lesson that I can reference again and again later in the story?

Find out next time in Wave Country – where Naruto fanfiction goes to die!

…Or maybe we'll just skip it.

Next chapter begins the main body of this story, so look forward to:

**Chapter 8:** _Twilight Zone_ by Golden Earring.


	8. Twilight Zone

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Posted: **12/1/08

**A/N:** I'd like to thank you all for your wonderful reviews and support for the first arc of _Houses of the Holy_. It was a great joy for me to write and - as an author - very fulfilling to read your responses to my first real attempt at fiction.

Having said that, I must admit that some of the reviews for the last chapter made me chuckle. I was trying – in what I thought was a fairly non-subtle way – to hint that there would be **no Wave arc** in this story. Some of you didn't pick up on that, so before we start arc two, I want to make this clear.

There will be no Wave arc in this story.

I wouldn't want you to be confused when you start reading chapter 8.

We're time skipping again folks. Naruto is now thirteen years old. Enjoy.

**Chapter Title: **_Twilight Zone_ by Golden Earring.

* * *

_Listen closely._

_This will be your last mission as a ninja of Rain Country, Naruto._

_

* * *

  
_

A young teen walked determinedly alongside a wide canal, mentally fortifying herself a final time for the task set before her.

She was Iwamoto Kaoru, and she was going to be a chuunin. She was sure of it.

But she was still nervous.

This would be her first Chuunin Exam since becoming a genin nearly a year ago. She had worked so hard to hone her skills to reach this point – to make her uncle proud of her. He was a Commander of Ame, after all, and she certainly could not disappoint him. Only twenty-seven genin were chosen to participate in this round of the Exams, and being one of them was certainly a high honor.

Especially given that Ame had not participated in the Exams in eight years – not since the hostilities between Lord Pain and the old regime had reached a boiling point. She would be one of the first genin sent forth to remind the ninja world that Amegakure was not a village to be trifled with.

Not only that, but her idiot teammate had gotten himself hospitalized not two weeks ago and despite a quick recovery had been deemed unfit to compete in the coming exams. So he had been transferred to a different team and replaced.

It hadn't helped matters that the dipstick she was now stuck with for the exams hadn't bothered to show up for training with the rest of Team Thirteen even once since then.

She would be meeting this mystery ninja for the first time today. What a way to jump into a life or death contest.

Kaoru spared a glance at the sunrise peaking over the horizon in the distance. She had wanted to arrive at the meeting point - just inside the city walls behind the Grand Causeway leading out over the city's defensive moat - early in order to make a good impression on the rest of the party. All nine of the genin teams participating in the exam were to assemble there with their jounin instructors before traveling together to the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Turning her attention in front of her she started in surprise. She had been so lost in her musings that she had unknowingly reached her destination.

Damn it! She couldn't afford to let her mind wander like that.

She allowed her eyes to pan over the wide square that opened just behind the main gates of the city. Unlike most of the urban cityscape – which consisted of ugly piping and dull concrete - this plaza was covered in wide cobblestone roadways lined with lush trees and alluring flowerbeds. It had been completely rebuilt after Pain's conquest of the city nearly four years prior. The only facet that remained unchanged from Hanzou's time was the massive stone plinth that decorated the center of the square. A statue of Hanzou had once stood there facing the Grand Causeway as a warning to any who would come into Amegakure against his will.

The statue was no more.

Now the granite monolith was decorated with the names of those who had fallen in the fight against Hanzou's oppression - starting with a mysterious character named Yahiko.

Not even her uncle had been able to tell Kaoru who that had been.

Finally her eyes focused on a lone figure standing next to the great cenotaph. On its hands. She blinked once before turning to examine her reflection in the calm waters of the canal beside her. Her shoulder-length auburn hair was still tied tightly into a bun at the back of her head and her apparel – a long-sleeved dark gray shirt with matching knee-length pants, a wide belt resting on her hips, and a feminine style of ninja sandals that reached up to her mid-calf – was immaculate.

Good.

Time to make a first impression.

She approached the inverted figure at a clipped pace – hoping to articulate that she was an all-business kunoichi. The figure gave no indication that it had detected her despite the fact that she had been deliberately noisy. She had not wanted to startle this person, but he or she had made no effort to acknowledge her even as she stopped walking not ten feet away.

From this distance she could see that the mystery figure was not simply standing on its hands but was actually pushing its whole body up and down on the tips of its fingers.

Now that was an unusual exercise.

The figure had still not acknowledged her presence, so she cleared her throat.

The ninja made no sound aside from a deep, muffled breathing as it slowly pushed up and down with its fingers. She wasn't sure if the muffling was caused by the forest green cape that fell down from the character's shoulders to the ground or if it was due to some other obstruction. The cape was blocking all view of the person's head.

Maybe a more direct approach…

"Hello." She waited for a few moments, her face drawing down into a tight frown all the while. She was about to do something she would later regret – like kick the mute's arms out from under him – when a muffled response drifted up from where she believed the caped figure's head to be.

"Howdy."

It sounded like a guy, but she couldn't be sure thanks to the distortion coming from whatever was covering his mouth. Well, at least he talked. It was something.

"What are you doing, exactly?"

The response came much quicker this time, and despite the muffled sound to the voice, Kaoru thought it sounded as though the figure was inwardly laughing at her.

"Waiting."

It wasn't the response she had expected.

"Waiting?"

"Exactly."

Was he making fun of her? He must have been. This certainly was not the introduction she had meant to make, and her temper was slowly building. Still, she was a Commander's niece and a kunoichi of Ame. She wouldn't let such a little thing set her off.

"Who are you waiting for?"

The figure stopped his finger push-ups then and carefully regained his feet. He shook out his hands and flexed his fingers a number of times before turning to look at her.

The boy – for that is what he had to be – was slightly shorter than she was by about an inch. Either he was very young or just small for his age – though something about him made her think that he was anything but immature despite his playful banter.

The second thing she noticed was that even for an Ame ninja – who generally dressed more conservatively thanks to the sometimes harsh environments they had to operate in – he was positively covered. From his closed-toed boots to the long, black bandanna that obscured his head all the way down to his shoulder blades - where it wrapped tightly around what Kaoru could only imagine was a long mane of hair - he was completely covered. He wore standard dark gray pants and a long sleeved shirt like many Ame ninjas, but also carried a number of accessories that she rarely if ever saw on a genin – or any ninja for that matter. Like the chuunin and jounin in the village, this boy wore a dark cream flak jacket with a high collar that was popular amongst ranking ninjas. The cape that had obscured her view of him earlier now hung comfortably from his shoulders down to his mid-thighs. Strangest of all, however, were the massive, deep-water re-breather and thick faceplate that he wore framing his tanned visage.

Only his eyes were visible, and strange eyes they were. Highlighted by a dark yet natural outline, slit like a cat's, and colored the most striking shade of cerulean blue, they held an intensity that she had rarely seen before. They sized her up – whether as an opponent, an amusement, or a meal, she couldn't really be sure.

The outfit looked familiar, and it took her only a handful of moments before she realized that she was looking at a flesh and blood miniature of the statue that once lorded over the square – with the gloves, boots, and bandanna as additions.

She didn't know what to make of that.

Like many children of ninja clans who were secretly supportive of Pain's revolution, Kaoru had been raised within the walls of Amegakure by parents who outwardly supported Hanzou's rule. Though young, she had memories of the time when the Salamander was supreme in Ame and mere mention of his name was revered.

Though many ninjas still dressed in the classic style of Amegakure, she found it to be a bit strange that a ninja in these times would choose to mimic the overthrown dictator so closely.

"My team, of course."

Kaoru could only stare at him for a moment, a bit flustered by the obvious response. Honestly, whom else would he be waiting for?

"Er, right. So… so what were you doing just now, exercising?"

The boy cocked his head to the side and stared at her for a moment before responding.

"Was I that obvious?"

Kaoru felt herself blush in consternation. She was really screwing this up. Luckily, she probably wouldn't see too much of this kid anyways. As far as she knew the Ame teams were only traveling to and from Konoha together – the rest of the time would be spent in the tournament and team training.

If they got that far.

"What sort of exercise was it?"

The boy was either getting tired of amusing himself at her expense or was simply ready to cut her a break.

"It's to strengthen my fingers." Seeing her brows draw together in confusion, he continued. "So that I don't sprain or break them in combat."

Kaoru thought a moment before answering. "I've never heard of a ninja strengthening just their fingers before. What good would that do in a fight?"

The boy's eyes narrowed into what she could only interpret as a sly smile.

"Maybe most ninjas don't fight like I do."

She nodded in acceptance of that. Perhaps she should just let it be.

"So what team are you waiting on?"

The boy shifted slightly as his eyebrows furrowed in concentration and his right hand found its way to the side of his head, which he scratched through his bandanna.

"I forgot."

Kaoru blinked at that. How could you forget what team you were on, for goodness sake?

"How do you forget something like that? Who's on your team?"

"Ah, I'm supposed to meet them today."

Oh no. This runt was the third member of Team Thirteen? He certainly didn't look like the reliable type that she had been hoping for.

"You wouldn't be waiting on Team Thirteen, would you?"

The boy's eyes brightened for a moment before he snapped his gloved fingers. "That's it! You aren't one of my teammates, are you?"

Kaoru gave a forced smile. "I suppose I am. My name is Iwamoto Kaoru. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The boy ignored her formal bow and stepped forward to grasp her hand, shaking it enthusiastically. "Nice to meet ya. I'm Yellow."

* * *

Naruto grinned behind his re-breather as the flustered girl before him tried to regain control of her flailing arm. All in all, he thought he'd done an excellent job of thoroughly confusing her, and it was fun too!

Regaining control of her arm, Kaoru once again went on the attack, though a bit more feebly than she had originally. Like her uncle, Naruto found the girl to be a bit pretentious, but his playful rapport had certainly put her off her normal game.

"That's your real name?"

This was just too much. "Of course not. I made it up just now."

She stared at him for a moment before her eyes narrowed in anger. Maybe he had pushed a bit too far? "So what's your real name?"

Naruto leaned in close to her conspiratorially. "It's a secret."

She looked as though she were about to erupt. He'd have to back off a bit. There was no need to enrage a teammate right out of the gate.

"It's my code name for this mission, and that's all I can tell you."

He could tell that she was skeptical, but his answer had diffused her anger for the moment. Done with her interrogation for now, she turned away to wait silently while the rest of their party arrived. Naruto occupied himself with watching the sunrise over the skyline of Amegakure.

It would be the last time he saw it for a long, long time.

It was not long before the two were joined in the center of the square by other genin. They wandered in one at a time or – in a few cases – in groups of three. Most minded their own business, but a few gave Naruto strange looks, which he studiously ignored. Let them wonder.

There were nearly a dozen genin assembled when the jounin instructors arrived. The nine high level ninjas appeared together in an instant – probably in an attempt to impress their charges. Naruto could never understand why they bothered.

Focusing on the group, Naruto found that he recognized the majority of them from his time serving with Pain's forces in the war. It was a small comfort to see the familiar faces after years of working alone and clinging to anonymity in Ame. A surprisingly large part of Naruto was glad to be out of the tower and interacting with other ninjas again.

It took only a matter of moments before the arriving jounin spotted him leaning against the granite cenotaph and calmly appraising them. The first few to see him narrowed their eyes in anger – most certainly due to his attire – before turning to their comrades and exchanging muted whispers. They were probably already in a bad mood due to not being allowed to wear their slashed through Ame headbands – a symbol of pride among Ame ninjas who actively fought against Hanzou's regime – on this mission. One of the ones that Naruto didn't recognize – he seemed rather young – was the first to call out.

"What the hell do you think you're wearing shrimp?"

Naruto didn't budge from his spot or give any indication that he was cognizant of the man's anger. He calmly noted that the other genin had turned their attention to him – watching as the young jounin stomped towards him in a huff. The other jounin followed behind, still exchanging heated whisperings between one another.

Maybe it was time to say something?

"I can hardly be blamed for not having had my growth spurt yet, now can I?"

Naruto made sure that his voice was light. He had to keep up appearances – mostly for benefit of the other genin who couldn't be trusted to keep their mouths shut. The jounins continued to approach – the curiosity and anger evident amongst many of them – while the original speaker's face began to redden in fury.

"I asked why you were wearing that, genin!"

Naruto's slit eyes found their way to meet a jounin named Yoichi's and gave him a meaningful look. The two had run missions and played cards together a great number of times back during the war.

"Because I was ordered to."

Yoichi's eyes widened in recognition and he nudged the man beside him with an elbow, though his companion was also staring intently at Naruto's eyes. Sharing a quick look they leapt forward and grabbed the young, incensed jounin beneath the armpits and dragged him back quickly. The rest of the group exchanged curious glances, though some of the older ones seemed to be catching on.

"We need to have a quick discussion." And with that, Yoichi led the other jounin off to talk.

The ninjas under Pain's command were not stupid. There was no way they had missed the inclusion of an eight-year-old boy into their ranks all those years ago in a time when literally no child fought in Pain's army. They had not missed the fact that – outside of missions – the boy seemed to disappear almost as often and as completely as Lord Pain or Angel themselves.

Those who remembered Tiger – for they never learned his name – knew him for his strange, cat-like eyes. They also knew him for the fact that he was almost certainly Lord Pain's own apprentice. Before his ninth birthday - it was said - the boy had already lead missions and survived an encounter with Hanzou himself.

And then the strange boy had disappeared just as surely as Lord Pain himself had. Once Hanzou was buried and Amegakure rebuilt, there was no hint at the fate of the child the ninjas had once called friend, comrade, and Captain.

But there were always whisperings.

Whisperings of a Demon, who just as surely as Angel would provide guidance to Pain's faithful, would tear his enemies down and leave nothing but ashes in his wake.

They were only rumors, of course – and those who remembered Tiger would never equate the quiet, clever boy they knew with the horrible monster that was depicted in the stories - but there was some truth to every rumor and Naruto knew that these men would connect the dots, and quickly.

The hushed whispers of the jounin carried across the otherwise silent square – though none could make out the exact conversation. More genin walked up as they continued and quietly fell in line with their teammates – subtly trying to find out just what was going on between the jounin and the strange new genin.

Finally, one of the younger jounin stepped forward to approach Naruto. This was his sensei - the head of Team Thirteen - and he seemed to be a bit out of sorts. The man was obviously horribly nervous – no doubt thanks to the stern talking to the more informed jounins had given their comrades.

Naruto sighed.

"Hello, sensei. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

The shorthaired brunette grabbed Naruto's outstretched hand weakly and allowed the boy to provide all of the enthusiasm for the shake. No doubt the young man was a bit overcome by anxiety thanks to the briefing he had received from one of the commanders - who had surely informed him just how _high_ this team assignment had come down from.

"The pleasure is mine, sir." The man spoke weakly and appeared to be sweating rather profusely. The other jounin winced at the deference the man showed the boy before him. There was something to be said for discretion – especially amongst ninjas.

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows in mock disgruntlement. "No need to patronize me, sensei."

The poor man brightened a further shade of red as he realized his mistake, but was saved from stuttering out a damning apology by one of the gathered genin.

"Good morning, sensei. Is this our new team member?"

The speaker was a boy of Naruto's age who had just arrived. Naruto inwardly scowled at the black-haired boy. He was easily four inches taller than the blond. Though his height usually didn't bother him, being thrust into a group of his peers – nearly all of which towered over him – was doing nothing for his self-image. His lack of height was one of his few sore spots.

"That's right." Kaoru had stepped forward to meet her old teammate. "This is Yellow, and he's going to the Exam with us."

The new boy raised an eyebrow at Naruto's fake name but amiably took the blond's offered hand and gave an enthusiastic shake.

"My name is Akira. Nice of you to finally join us, Yellow."

Naruto laughed lightly, though it sounded a bit strange through the oversized re-breather covering his mouth. "Yeah, sorry about that. I guess the paperwork concerning my transfer got lost or something. I only got the assignment yesterday." Which was true – at least the part about the team assignment.

Naruto looked around and quickly counted the heads of the genin surrounding him. They had mostly gone back to conversing amongst themselves after the small confrontation involving the jounin instructors. He nodded to himself when he found all twenty-six of his "peers" assembled.

"Looks like everyone's here. Time to head out?" The question carried to the group of jounin who were still muttering to one another – bunch of gossips that they were.

Pulled out of their musings, they regarded the assembled ninjas before a voice called out over the cacophony of many conversations.

"Listen up! We're heading out now so you'd better check your gear with your instructor and make sure you have everything prepared. I want us in Konoha by dinnertime tomorrow, so we'll be hauling ass on the way over. Stay close to your instructor and follow orders to the letter. Remember that we are guests in a foreign nation during this trip, so keep your actions within the rules and guidelines laid out for the Examination. If you fuck up I'm not going to be the one to pull you out of an ANBU interrogation cell. Now get to it!"

* * *

The Ame party had been met at the border of Rain Country and Fire Country that evening a little after nightfall by a group of Konoha jounin. From the conversations he overheard, Naruto found that they had been expected and that the Hokage had dispersed squads to escort every foreign party from the border to Konoha proper in order to prevent any dangerous encounters or misunderstandings.

The next morning, Naruto took the time racing through the treetops of Fire Country to examine his fellow examinees. There were two types of ninjas who found themselves in the Chuunin Exams – those who were up and coming prodigies who would reflect well on their village of origin and those who were likely to never advance in rank yet foolishly hoped to one day become a Chuunin regardless.

Most chuunin were not promoted in the public exams. There were not nearly enough promotions in the average Chuunin Exam to sustain even one of the larger villages - let alone the five villages that were participating in this exam. Genin were more often than not given commissions as chuunin thanks to skills exhibited or missions completed.

The genin sent to the international exams served an important purpose, however. The exams were – more than anything else – an exhibition of the best and brightest of various villages as well as a show of strength of arms. Because of this, there were two important factors to consider when picking which and how many genin to send to the exam.

First, powerful genin with bright prospects are sent to showcase the quality of the ninjas of a village. Often these genin are held back an exam or two so that when they do fight, they appear to be far stronger than their greener opponents. The other reason to hold them back, of course, is to ensure that such valuable young ninja are not inadvertently sent to their deaths before they are truly ready to face the rigors of unsupervised combat. Simple talent cannot always protect a ninja in every circumstance, and the Chuunin Exams represent a very real scenario in which a genin is put in life or death situations without the assistance of a more capable jounin instructor.

Second, each village is expected to send a respectable number of candidates to each exam. This provides an indication to both rivals and clients that the village is strong enough to forego the presence of a decent number of both genin and jounin and still function properly. In reality, sending so many participants – most of which never have a hope of passing the Exam – is a wasteful allocation of ninja resources that nonetheless sends an important message to others about the strength and readiness of each village. The ranks of these extra ninjas were often filled with older genin who would likely never achieve the rank of chuunin, yet still hoped to one day be promoted. Despite their relative lack of skill, these perpetual genin were often the most dangerous to their younger counterparts – embittered as they were due to their own experiences and failings. A vast majority of fatalities occurring in the exams were due to these candidates preying on their younger, greener, yet more inherently talented opponents.

As Naruto observed his fellows, he could easily make out the difference between the up-and-comers and the pipe-dreamers. His teammates – Akira and Kaoru – were certainly in the first group. Both were young and exhibited the qualities of a natural shinobi – which was no surprise in Kaoru's case given who her uncle was. Another team of young teens - who all wore a smaller, shallow-water version of his re-breather - seemed to have a good team dynamic. Their stamina appeared to be less than extraordinary, however, given their constant huffing and puffing. Most likely they would end up a successful team – if not this year then in years to come.

On the other hand, a group of older teens – some nearly as old as the younger jounins – were an excellent example of Chuunin Exam throwaways. Decked out in woven straw hats and odd wooden umbrellas, these genin sported scars and cloth masks that likely covered up more scars. They were killers - though not particularly good ones - and Naruto distantly wondered if they'd make any trouble in the exam's later stages.

Not that he cared.

After the Exam he'd probably never see these people again.

The day passed in general silence aside from the occasional quiet conversation, the thumping of rubber on wood, and the rustling of the trees. As the sun was finally dipping below the tops of the trees late in the afternoon, Naruto caught his first glimpse of the massive wooden gates of Konohagakure.

And aside from a slight bit of anticipation for what he was going to do here, he felt nothing.

The escorting Konoha ninjas announced them at the gates - where the chuunin guards marked their arrival - before disappearing into the village. The Ame delegation was to wait here for a new group of jounin to meet them and escort them to the Hokage's tower where they would be properly registered for the exam. One by one, the Ame teams were led down the wide, main thoroughfare that led between the gate and the administrative tower.

Naruto's interest was slightly piqued at the sight of Team Thirteen's escort – a man who appeared in every Bingo Book in the shinobi nations – Hatake Kakashi. The laid back man led them on a leisurely stroll through the village towards the Hokage tower, all the while making small talk with the team's jounin sensei – though the poor man seemed just as flustered in the presence of the legendary jounin as he had been the day before when meeting Naruto.

The blond took this time to reacquaint himself with the layout of the village. It had been more than eight years since he had been within these walls, though he was quick to realize that not much had changed from what he remembered from his childhood. Maybe he'd swing by the ramen stand and see if it was still open after all this time. Now that he actually had money to pay for his meals the least he could do was offer the old man his patronage.

His gaze wandered farther ahead to the rocky monument carved into the cliffs overlooking the village. He had often looked on it as a child - admiring the stern faces of the Hokages and imagining how wonderful they had been in life. Now he looked on in a new light at men who sacrificed more than any others for the sake of their village – performing unspeakable acts to ensure its peace and prosperity.

They were heroes, yes, but they were ninjas too.

And there was the stern gaze of his father as well. Did he hold that expression often in life?

Lost in his thoughts, Naruto barely registered the masked Konoha ninja slide up beside him and idly strike up a conversation.

"You have interesting eyes."

Barely sparing the man a glance, Naruto answered. "So do you."

Oops.

Naruto schooled his face quickly. He hadn't meant to say that. Though Kakashi's Sharingan eye was well documented, it was a bit odd that a genin would be able to recall that type of information off the top of his head – especially when it concerned a ninja from a foreign village.

Kakashi just closed his eye in what Naruto supposed was an exaggerated smile. Quietly the boy mused that the white haired man must have practiced long and hard to be able to convey such emotion with just an eye.

"Fair enough." The man turned to look at the Hokage Monument that Naruto had been carefully scrutinizing. "I noticed you looking at the Monument. It's something, isn't it?"

Naruto nodded slowly. "Not much like it in Rain Country." He paused for a moment, thinking quickly to himself. What could it hurt? "I was just wondering if the Fourth Hokage always looked so stern. After all I've heard of him, that isn't the picture I was expecting."

Kakashi hummed to himself quietly, appearing to debate whether or not to answer the unasked question. "Well, sensei was certainly serious when the circumstances called for it, but I wouldn't call him a serious man. To tell you the truth, he smiled more often than not. He was a good man and a good friend."

Naruto nodded, thankful for the man's candidness. "I see."

They were at the tower now. Naruto followed Kakashi and his team into a large administrative room where dozens of teams from various nations were signing in and receiving their housing assignments and testing instructions.

Naruto hoped it wouldn't be too long before he could eat and call it a night.

* * *

Sarutobi looked down at the throng below him from a second floor balcony. He was never sure why all of the competitors made a point of showing up late on the day before the start of the exam and at the same time, but it made for a veritable madhouse both for the genin squads and the administrative staff.

He ignored the soft patter of feet and the dull clunking that announced a rather unwelcome presence beside him for the chaos occurring below.

"I still don't understand why you've allowed the Village Hidden in Sound to compete in this exam, Hiruzen. What good could possibly come from inviting Orochimaru and his men here?"

Sarutobi sighed and reluctantly turned to face the grizzled visage of Danzou, who joined him in looking over the arriving examinees.

"As I've explained to you many times, Danzou, it is in our best interests to expose him here and now, while our forces are capable of dealing with any schemes he may be concocting."

"And I still fail to see how inviting the fox into the chicken coop is a viable strategy. Don't you think that Ame's entrance in this examination is a bit too coincidental? After eight years of not participating they choose this time to send a delegation?"

"A simple coincidence, Danzou." Sarutobi turned to give the bandaged man a meaningful look. "Unless you believe that Hanzou would willingly consort with Orochimaru?"

"Anything is possible, Hiruzen, and until you accept that we remain vulnerable. Hanzou could easily choose this time to neutralize us once and for all. Don't expect me to believe that you could survive another battle with that man. Unless you've forgotten, he is still younger than we are. I wonder if you could even defeat Orochimaru any longer."

Sarutobi winced slightly. "It is true that I must find another successor soon, but I hope to at least be able to weather this storm."

"Regardless, this exam should be interesting, so long as it lasts. Sai has informed me that Uchiha Sasuke is progressing quickly and that he should put on quite the showing."

The old Hokage frowned. "Might I remind you that Sai is no longer your subordinate, Danzou. I allowed him to be placed on Team Seven with Sasuke at the insistence of the council. Not so that you could spy on the boy. Both Sai and Sasuke would do well to open up to others more. It would certainly be a step towards reversing the damage…"

"I don't need another lecture, Hiruzen. You've already taken away my ANBU."

"And I'd do more were it not for the council. Shinobi are not tools for you to shape as you will. That behavior is unacceptable."

Danzou grunted.

Sarutobi's gaze once again wandered out to the main doors, where more and more young ninjas were being led into the registration center. There stood the future of the other nations, but Sarutobi could not see that future for his own home. The younger generation in Konoha was far removed from the true meaning of war and strife, and still only Kakashi showed any potential to take up the reigns as his successor with Tsunade and Jiraiya absent. The council – no, the whole village – had high hopes for young Sasuke, but his obsession with hunting down poor Itachi and gaining more power were not the makings of a successful Hokage.

Sarutobi had foolishly put his hopes in another – so long ago – but he had let that opportunity slip through his fingers thanks to his own naivety. He would do so many things differently if given the chance, but now that was impossible and his opportunity was almost surely lost.

The doors swung open and closed. Open and closed.

"You're thinking about Uzumaki again."

"He's still out there, Danzou, hiding somewhere."

"Even if that's true…"

"It's true, Jiraiya has assured me that his information is correct. Naruto contacted the Raikage's brother…"

"Five years ago! And that's only if you believe the veracity of those reports. There's not even any evidence to suggest that it actually was Naruto - only that he reportedly claimed that that was his name."

"Jiraiya's information came from the Raikage's office. He assured me that Killer Bee confirmed that the boy fit Naruto's profile and showed markings characteristic of a jinchuuriki."

"And what's your point, Hiruzen? Nothing's been heard from him since then. The boy is probably dead by now."

Sarutobi shook his head slowly. "If he was good enough to escape from Killer Bee at eight then someone has been giving him training. That same someone has been hiding him all this time. The only question is who and for what purpose. He is thirteen – he should be strong enough by now to operate openly. Sooner or later we'll be seeing Naruto again, but under who's banner, I can't be sure."

Danzou scoffed. "Then our worst fears will come to be realized. An enemy with the son of a Hokage as his weapon! Face it, Hiruzen, even if the boy surfaces we'll almost certainly be best served by killing him."

Sarutobi didn't respond. His gaze was drawn to the opening door once again as Kakashi strode in beside a short figure wearing an outfit that he never expect to see at an exam like this one.

It was the armor of Hanzou – worn only by the man himself and his personal guards.

The short figure slowly scanned the room, sparing only a moment for the two old men on the balcony. Sarutobi was too far away to make out the young teen's face.

Danzou's voice carried to him in low tones over the din below.

"Now that is interesting."

* * *

Naruto left the dorm room that he shared with Akira early the next morning and headed leisurely to the river that ran alongside the city for his daily swim. His Ame-tailored gear was designed to work both in and out of water at maximum efficiency, so he had no reason to remove any of his coverings.

The evening had been uneventful aside from when he elicited a startled yelp from Akira when he removed his re-breather and flashed the taller boy his fangs. Good times.

The sun was well into the late morning sky when he finished his routine. The first stage of the exam did not begin until later that afternoon, so Naruto decided to use this time to get a better look at the village.

For the most part the day went by uneventfully, but Naruto did learn one important piece of information.

The Ichiraku Ramen stand was still open.

* * *

"We've been waiting here for over an hour, Yellow! Everyone else is already inside!"

Kaoru was irate, while Akira just looked bored. Their sensei seemed torn between wanting to admonish Naruto and placate Kaoru. The man seemed a bit useless as a sensei, though that spoke nothing of his skills as a shinobi.

"What's the rush? The test doesn't start until four and it's only…" Naruto glanced over his shoulder at the position of the sun still hanging over the tops of the buildings "…well, it's not even three yet."

Kaoru narrowed her eyes and practically hissed at him. "We were going to go in early!"

Naruto looked affronted at the enraged kunoichi. "Alright, alright, enough yelling. If we were going in early then why didn't anyone let me know?"

Akira spoke up this time. "Maybe because you were gone before anyone woke up?"

Naruto shifted his gaze to the brunette. "Well I can hardly be blamed for that. Anyways, what are we standing around out here for? Let's get in there and scope out the competition!"

Kaoru sighed and turned to follow the covered boy in through the doors of the Konoha Ninja Academy, Akira trailing just behind her.

"Good luck!" It looked like their sensei had finally decided on something to say.

* * *

They reached the second floor without any trouble – and promptly ran into a press of examinees. It appeared that they were trying to get through a door at the end of the corridor labeled as the proper examination room, but were being blocked by a pair of young teens in Konoha headbands. Naruto pressed forward a bit to overhear the conversation between the two and what looked like another squad of Konoha genin who were being beaten away from the door.

Kaoru's voice drifted to Naruto's ears in a bare whisper. "This is the second floor. Why is the door labeled in the three hundreds? Weren't the ones on the first floor one hundred?"

Akira responded quickly. "Yep. Either they have an odd numbering system going on here or that's a genjutsu – probably part of the test."

Kaoru brought her hands together in a simple ram seal. "So those two are probably chuunin proctors."

Naruto grabbed her hands before turning around. "Don't do that, this is hilarious. Plus, we have no reason to help out all these other chumps. They're competition, right?"

Kaoru nodded and lowered her hands to her sides, settling in to watch the frustrated genin try to get by.

It quickly occurred to Naruto that the team that was trying so hard to get by unsuccessfully was faking it. If he wasn't mistaken, the one calmly watching his teammates get smacked around was a Hyuuga. He'd never met one before, but from what he'd heard there was no way a basic illusion like this would stump a member of that clan.

As more chuunin hopefuls spilled in behind them Naruto was bumped roughly by a slightly larger boy who was trying to make his way forward. Immediately Naruto's eyes fell onto the red and white symbol on the back the boy's navy blue T-shirt.

Uchiha Sasuke. Well, that hadn't been too hard.

The Uchiha was followed closely by a pink haired kunoichi and a pale, dark haired boy who seemed bored with the whole affair. His team, no doubt.

Sasuke strode forward towards the door, undeterred by the swarm of ninjas in his way, and stopped before the two disguised chuunin. Naruto followed the pale boy closely - his team right behind him - in order to get a better view for what promised to be a rather amusing encounter.

"I'm sure you must have noticed it first, Sakura." He said it with a superior smirk, one that made Naruto want to laugh at him. Congratulations, Uchiha, you found the fake door.

The pink haired girl answered, apparently very pleased with herself. "We're only on the second floor."

Naruto blinked. The pale boy still looked bored.

"Genius." The low voice of Akira expressed the thoughts of many.

"Take down this genjutsu and let us through."

"Holy shit! This is a genjutsu?" Naruto would have his fun with this. He stepped forward and slapped the Uchiha on the back, hard. "Thanks a bunch, buddy. I don't know what we would have done without your help there." As he spoke he indicated his two teammates with his hand.

Kaoru rolled her eyes.

"Idiot." The Hyuuga did not look happy with Sasuke. "I don't even have to ask. You must be a rookie."

The Uchiha turned with an angry expression on his face. "And just what is that supposed to mean?"

The Hyuuga's eerie eyes narrowed as his two teammates rose from the floor of the hallway, completely unharmed. "It means that you're too dense to understand a simple concept like subtlety. How many of these genin do you think would never have gotten past this door if you had managed to keep your idiot mouth shut?"

"Don't call Sasuke an idiot!"

The Hyuuga spared the girl – Sakura – a bare glance before returning his eyes to the Uchiha.

Sasuke looked a bit miffed for a moment before regaining his composure. He probably just realized just how bone-headed that move had been. "Hmph. If you need to rely on petty mind games to pass this exam, then I doubt you're worth my time."

The Hyuuga's schooled face revealed a bare hint of anger at the slight. "What's your name?"

"I don't have to answer to you."

The Uchiha turned his back and moved down the hallway – the chuunin guards long gone and his teammates following close behind. Naruto raised an eyebrow as one of the Hyuuga's teammates – a boy with a bowl cut and a hideous green spandex body suit – followed after the trio. Maybe he'd get to see something interesting?

"I'm going to be a few minutes, you two can go on ahead."

Kaoru frowned. "I don't think that's a good idea."

Naruto nodded. "Okay." Then he started walking off after the green clad boy.

Kaoru's annoyed voice followed after him. "Just don't get us disqualified!"

* * *

Naruto caught up to the four genin in a large chamber – most likely used for sparring. He stood on a second story balcony overlooking the tiled floor below him. As he had hoped, the oddly dressed boy had challenged Sasuke to a spar.

Time to see what the youngest Uchiha could do.

Before the match could begin, Naruto turned around to find a small girl approaching him from the way he had just come. He was a bit relieved to finally meet someone shorter than he was. She gave him a small nod before moving to stand beside him at the railing.

"Hello there."

The girl turned to him shyly, keeping her head low and appearing to want to disappear into herself. Naruto wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Hello." Her voice was annoyingly quiet. The girl seemed to have no backbone whatsoever.

"I hope you don't mind my asking, but are you a Hyuuga?"

The girl nodded. "Yes."

"Ah." Naruto turned back around to watch the fight below, which was just now beginning. "Who are you here to see?"

The girl looked at him for a moment before turning back to the floor. "Rock Lee, the boy in green."

"Is that right? He looks to be holding his own."

In fact Rock Lee was doing more than holding his own. Using a rigid form of taijutsu that Naruto hadn't quite seen the likes of before, Lee was tearing the Uchiha apart. The speed difference between the two fighters was just too great. Naruto let out a bit of a chuckle at the boy's assessment of the Sharingan. Sometimes the truth hurt.

From his rigid, pre-programmed strikes and somewhat strained movements Naruto could tell that Lee was wearing a good deal of weight. Apparently the boy wasn't the type to really rub it in the Uchiha's face. He was certainly much stronger than he let on.

The girl beside him gave a small smile when Lee ended the fight with an unorthodox kick that launched the beaten Uchiha high into the air. "Well done, Lee."

Naruto nodded. "He's very good with his taijutsu."

"Nobody works harder than Lee to get stronger. He has the strongest spirit of anyone I know." Apparently her champion's win had emboldened her a bit.

"That's certainly commendable." Naruto watched as a turtle appeared in the middle of the room and began to berate Lee for attempting to use an apparently forbidden technique. That was something to keep in mind. "I think it's time for us to get to the examination room now, the fight's over." He stopped to think for a moment before continuing. "I didn't catch your name."

The girl looked a bit surprised by the veiled question, but quickly recovered. "I'm Hyuuga Hinata."

Naruto stuck out his hand to the small girl. "My name's Yellow. Pleased to meet ya."

Hinata smiled sheepishly before gently taking the offered hand. The two of them walked down the stairs and skirted the edge of the room while what must have been Lee's jounin sensei berated the boy and had words with Team Uchiha. Finally approaching the examination room, Naruto was surprised to find Hatake Kakashi waiting outside reading a small orange book. It took him a minute to realize that the man must have been waiting for his own squad.

"Is the Uchiha yours, Hatake?"

Looking up from his reading, Kakashi took a moment to recognize the strange face that greeted him.

"Ah, hello again. That's right, did something happen?"

"Not really. Your team should be on their way in a moment. The Uchiha had a sparring match with a taijutsu specialist and they're talking with the kid's instructor now."

Kakashi sighed and brought the heel of his hand to his temple – supposedly to fend off a headache. "Did Sasuke at least win?"

"No, got his ass handed to him pretty badly. The green kid was damn good though."

This was obviously not the response that Kakashi had been hoping for. He sighed again. "Alright, thanks for the update."

"Yep."

With that the two teens walked through the door, leaving the jounin to his thoughts and his small, orange book.

The examination room for the first round of the Chuunin Exams was enormous. There were already well over a hundred genin packed into the room. They sat together in small groups with other ninjas from their respective villages. Naruto scanned the room quickly and picked the faces he was looking for out of the crowd – which was relatively simple given that his entrance had drawn the attention of nearly every person in the room.

Kaoru and Akira sat off to one side with the rest of the Ame delegation. He spared them a small wave, which was returned by Akira. Kaoru seemed to exhale a deep breath that she had been holding. Naruto wasn't sure what he had done to give her the impression that he was completely unreliable, but her reactions to him were getting a bit annoying.

Rock Lee's team sat nearby at the end of one of the examination tables, eagerly looking up when he entered before turning away in disinterest at the sight of him. Apparently Kaoru wasn't the only one worried about wayward teammates.

Finally his sharp eyes came to rest on the form of his final target. He grinned as the turquoise eyes met his own and narrowed in concentration before widening in – what was that? Oh yes – fear.

Naruto didn't consider himself a particularly cruel person, but he savored this. Apparently his lesson had sunk in all those years ago.

Gaara of the Desert still remembered him.

His attention was drawn away from the Sand jinchuuriki as two boys approached him – one wearing an oversized jacket with fur lining and a small dog resting against his chest and the other - a tall boy wearing a high-collared jacket and sunglasses. On second glance, it looked like they were approaching Hinata – who still stood beside him. This was her team no doubt.

"Hey Hinata! Who's the robot?" The dog boy, Naruto found, was nearly as loud as he himself was on occasion.

The quiet girl looked to Naruto before speaking. "This is Yellow, from Ame."

The boy looked between Hinata and Naruto in confusion before finally resting on the blond. "Your name is Yellow?"

Naruto cocked his head to the side and met the boy's eyes with his own. "It is today."

The dog boy nodded slowly. "Alright Yellow, my name's Inuzuka Kiba and this guy here is Aburame Shino."

Naruto nodded at one after the other. "Pleasure."

"You have some wicked eyes there, dude."

Naruto let loose a wide grin then, though it was hidden behind the massive re-breather. "Killer."

Their conversation was halted as the doors opened behind them and Kakashi's team stalked in with Sasuke in the lead. Sakura was apparently trying to raise his spirits after the humiliating defeat he suffered while the pale boy continued to look disinterested in the whole affair.

Naruto looked on in amusement as the Uchiha was accosted by a blond kunoichi who sported a long ponytail. Sasuke looked to be beyond annoyed by the squealing girl around his neck. Apparently Sakura didn't appreciate it much either, as she and the blonde began a loud argument while Kiba and Shino wandered over to the now liberated Sasuke. Two other boys joined them there – a dark haired boy with his hair pulled back into a short, high ponytail and a portly boy with strange markings on his cheeks and a bag of some sort of snack food in his hand.

Not wanting to waste an opportunity, Naruto followed the boys over to get the dirt on these Konoha ninja. To be honest, he was enjoying interacting with people his own age – even if he had to invite himself into their company. He quickly picked up that the pony-tailed boy was Shikamaru and the pudgy one was Chouji.

It only took a moment for Kiba to realize he was standing with the group and introduce him to the rest, though Sasuke seemed reluctant to chat with "the enemy."

"How's your jaw, Uchiha?"

Sasuke scowled at him but didn't answer. Apparently the kid had a fragile ego to boot.

"What's he talking about, Sasuke?" Kiba, at least, was willing to explore the topic.

Naruto pointed over to where Rock Lee was sitting with his team – having slipped by the group in the confusion. "The kid in green over there – Rock Lee I think his name was – beat the tar out of the Uchiha here a few minutes ago."

Kiba looked shocked for a moment, while Shikamaru quickly sized up Lee. Despite his lazy attitude, Naruto got the feeling that the boy picked up on more than he let on.

"Haha, just goes to show that even a genius can have his moments like the rest of us!" Kiba was really laying into Sasuke. Naruto wondered if maybe there was some bitterness there despite the dog boy's outgoing and friendly nature.

"You shouldn't be so loud you know. You don't want to be drawing attention to yourselves in a place like this."

The group turned as one to see an older Konoha ninja sporting round glasses and a silver ponytail walk up to them.

Sparing a glance at Naruto, the newcomer continued. "And I'm not sure what you all are thinking consorting with the enemy like this, but I would strongly suggest that you don't."

Naruto gave a dry chuckle through his re-breather. "How about this? I promise I won't kill any of you in these exams. Good enough?"

Kiba gave a barking laugh but cut it short when he found that he was alone in his amusement.

The silver haired genin introduced himself as Yakushi Kabuto and produced an odd deck of cards after telling his tale of six failed exams. It was a believable story in Naruto's mind, aside from existence of the veritable treasure trove of information he had in his pocket.

"Maybe you should train a bit more instead to taking so much time collecting data, eh? You might actually pass one of these times."

Kabuto only pushed his glasses up his nose. "I'd rather be well informed enough to survive these exams than risk dying. The Chuunin Exam isn't a game, you know."

Naruto almost snorted in mirth. Almost.

Sasuke asked for data on both Rock Lee and – to Naruto's surprise – Gaara of the Desert. Apparently they had had a run-in earlier the previous day. It was no surprise to Naruto that Rock Lee was an accomplished taijutsu expert – though his other skills were absolutely abysmal. Gaara had apparently completed a number of B-ranked missions and held the distinction of never being injured – not once.

Naruto actually did snort at that, but ignored the strange looks he received.

Kiba even asked for information on Naruto, but Kabuto claimed that because Ame hadn't participated for a number of years that no data was available.

Lucky for him.

And for Kabuto.

The older genin made a mistake, however, when he managed to insult the newly founded Village Hidden in the Sound and was accosted by a group of ninjas from the village. It was no real surprise that the leader of the Sound ninjas used a device to manipulate the sound waves traveling through Kabuto's ear to damage him internally.

It was an interesting attack in Naruto's opinion – though not much more than a simple parlor trick in the grand scheme of things.

Naruto rolled his eyes at the idiocy of it all. Did they honestly believe that the proctors would leave a room full of nearly two hundred apprentice ninjas from different villages unsupervised?

He had barely finished his thought when nearly twenty ninjas appeared in the room and gave the Sound group a dressing down.

Finally the exam was ready to begin.

And it was a paper test.

Naruto scowled at the absurdity of the questions lain before him.

Math problems? Ciphers? This rubbish didn't have anything to do with being a chuunin and frankly wasn't even taught in most academies beyond the very basics. Naruto supposed that he could do some of them if he put his mind to it, but he had finished his formal education in a cave more than five years ago.

The setup of the test eventually gave away its purpose. It was a question of cheating, but even then there was more to it. A good cheater, no matter how poor he was at being a ninja, wouldn't need more than one try to get all of the answers for the test. The way the rules were worded, Naruto wouldn't have been surprised if he were only docked two points for stealing the paper of the student beside him.

So the test weeded out the morons who couldn't remember nine answers. If you tried to cheat, it was a given that you'd be caught – especially considering that no matter how good a ninja you were it would be almost impossible to fool a room full of proctors hanging on your every action. The real trick here was to only have to cheat once – or at least less than five times.

The tenth question was the answer it seemed, so Naruto waited with a blank paper for forty-five minutes before the final question was asked. If worse came to worst, he could always cheat in the final fifteen minutes.

The final question gave the test away. Frankly Naruto was stunned when examinees started quitting based solely on the examiner's threat. Honestly, did they really think that their village leaders gave a damn what some Konoha jounin said? Pain sure as hell wouldn't. Hanzou wouldn't have, either.

What a bunch of morons.

It was times like this that Naruto thanked whatever higher power existed that he had been kidnapped all those years ago. God forbid he be another wet-behind-the-ears idiot like so many of these genin turned out to be.

He wasn't worried about his teammates. Given what he had gleaned of her personality, Kaoru had probably threatened Akira before the exam in case something like this came up.

When all of the wimps had folded, the head proctor announced that they had all passed.

Now, as the sun began to lick the tops of the trees in the late afternoon, Naruto found himself standing outside of what the second proctor had lovingly referred to as the Forest of Death.

At least he wouldn't be stuck sitting at a desk for this next exam.

Turning to glance at his two teammates, Naruto steeled himself for what was to come.

No one ever said that being a ninja was pretty.

His real mission started now.

* * *

**A/N:** Well, there's your first chapter of arc two. Is it pretty darn close to canon? Yep, but that's sort of the point, for now. Not a lot of action, I know, but I had to push through these first few scenes. Next chapter will take us through the second exam and possibly start the preliminaries (can't have a Chuunin arc without those gems).

About Sai: Yes I know it's cliché, but I had the option of creating an original character to follow Sasuke and Sakura around who got no lines or I could use an already existing character. It wasn't a hard choice for me.

About Hinata: In my mind I could either completely re-write her character as a total loser – having had no one to inspire her – or have her miraculously grow a spine. Instead I chose what made sense to me. Lacking a role model in her own class she looked a bit further and found Lee – who exhibits many of the same qualities that canon Naruto does.

About Hanzou's age: Some people may have been wondering about this considering that the manga shows him to be middle-aged when he encounters the Sannin. In my story - and I think this can be supported by canon since Jiraiya still believes him to be insanely powerful when he learns of Pain defeating him - Hanzou is three years younger than Sarutobi. That means that he was sixty-one when Pain killed him. Suffice it to say that Hanzou was very young when he gained the Salamander Contract and began his rise to power (mid teens).

I realize with this arc that many of my loyal readers will either be drawn into the story or put off by the horrible contrast between the somewhat original Rain arc and the twisted rehash of canon that this arc promises to be, but writing this arc was always my intention and to me, it just makes sense.

**Next Chapter:** _Money For Nothing_ by Dire Straights.


	9. Money For Nothing

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Posted: **12/10/08

**A/N:** I must say that I'm glad most of you seemed to enjoy the first chapter of arc two. I'm going to do my best not to let this part of the story get bogged down in canon rehash.

A quick note about Yugito, since some people seemed confused:

When I wrote that she wouldn't be appearing for around 100k words back in chapter five (some 30k+ words ago), I meant just that.

Yugito, being from the Village Hidden in the Clouds, is not a ninja of a country allied with Konoha and therefore would never be found in Konoha for a Chuunin Exam.

For those who don't know, the allied nations consist of Konoha, Suna, Oto, Kusa, and Ame. These are the only villages represented during the exam.

That aside, I think it's safe to assume that Yugito (now fifteen) is no longer a genin.

**Chapter Title: **_Money For Nothing_ by Dire Straights.

* * *

_Madara and Itachi were meticulous in their dealings with the late Uchiha clan. They made sure that not a single one of their kin was spared - even killing those who were on duty outside of the clan compound at the time of their strike._

_I can understand Itachi acting on his feelings and attachments, but Madara had no love left for his clan. In truth he seemed obsessed with its ultimate destruction, which begs the question:_

_Why is Uchiha Sasuke still alive?_

_

* * *

  
_

Team Thirteen watched silently as the Konoha chuunin removed the thick padlock and chain from the gate leading to the Forest of Death. The man swung the gate open and gave the three young teens a curt nod.

Then they were gone.

Naruto followed Kaoru into the thick canopy – Akira right beside him. It would probably be best not to upset his teammates' strategy – whatever that might be. He'd have to sneak away without causing a stink.

He landed loudly on a branch and stopped, waiting for the others to notice his absence. The two were a good twenty feet away before Akira got the attention of Kaoru and they both turned around – Kaoru with an exasperated look about her and Akira with a curious glance.

"I have to take a piss." It was rather blunt and in poor taste if he were to be honest with himself, but he didn't have the time or inclination to take their perhaps delicate sensibilities into consideration. "I figured better now than later, right?"

Kaoru looked a bit disgusted. "Go on then. And don't do anything stupid. I'm sending Akira after you if you're not back in two minutes."

The dark haired boy gave her annoyed look, but didn't bother to retort. He seemed to be used to her attitude.

Poor bastard.

A minute and a half later, his business done, Naruto found his two teammates once again standing on the high branch where he had left them.

"Are we ready to do this then?" The girl seriously needed to lighten up.

"I'm good to go. Sorry about the wait."

Akira broke in for the first time since entering the forest. "Since we're already on a break, maybe we should quickly go over our abilities? Kaoru and I know what we're capable of, but what about you, Yellow?"

Naruto nodded. The boy had a fair point. "These are my shadow clones." He made a small gesture towards Kaoru and Akira, who spun around immediately while drawing kunai – only to find two exact replicas of Naruto standing at ease before them. "Are you familiar with this technique?"

Kaoru nodded slowly while eying the clone before her. "It's the most advanced of the clone techniques. It creates a perfect replica of the original ninja that's solid and independent of the creator." She turned back to the original Naruto with a look of awe written across her face. "Isn't this a jounin level technique?"

"Generally speaking, yes. I have above average chakra reserves so this technique is perfect for me, despite my rank. Any other questions?"

Kaoru shook her head, dumbfounded, while Akira gave a sharp nod over his shoulder.

"Alright then, let's get a move on. And please don't misplace that scroll, Kaoru."

The girl managed to slip her countenance back into the familiar scowl that the blond had grown accustomed to at the sight of his smiling eyes.

There, now that was better.

* * *

The exam had only been going on for an hour and a half when Naruto stumbled upon something he had hoped he wouldn't have to see during these exams. The shaded clearing was covered in splattered blood. It was everywhere.

He cautiously approached the mangled hunks of human flesh that lay unceremoniously in the midst of it all. He knew he had a bad feeling about these three.

It had only taken a glance at the wood and paper umbrellas that were scattered around the clearing to confirm their identities. It also confirmed that - unless someone had pissed in Gaara's morning coffee, leaving him in an abnormally bad mood – the sandy-haired boy was still a homicidal psychopath.

Wonderful.

The corpses looked like they had been crushed under immense pressure leaving most of their bodies reduced to gristly hamburger. Thankfully they were very recent kills. Naruto could handle the stench of blood, but the smell of rotting corpses still managed to turn his stomach even now.

He'd seen enough.

Turning to the underbrush at the side of the clearing, Naruto cleared his throat and spoke. "I don't suppose you saw what happened here?"

He was met with silence for a moment, followed by barely perceptible whispers and then the rustling of bushes. Three figures emerged, and Naruto was glad to see that they were ninja he'd already met. That would cut down on time significantly.

Kiba was the first out of the bushes - his arms wrapped around his trembling puppy. The tall boy – Shino – and Hinata cautiously followed afterwards. Naruto didn't much blame them.

"He just killed them. He killed them like it was nothing – like they meant nothing." Kiba's voice was trembling slightly as he picked his way among the pools of blood. He stopped a good twenty feet from Naruto and conspicuously averted his gaze from the disfigured lumps on the ground at the blond's feet.

Naruto sighed and walked towards the three, seemingly oblivious to the bloody mud that stuck to his boots.

Hinata looked even worse than Kiba did. Her face was covered in sweat and she appeared to be trembling. Shino's steady hand on her shoulder was probably the only thing that was keeping the poor girl standing.

"I'm sorry for the loss of your comrades." It was the first time that the tall boy had spoken in Naruto's presence.

Naruto took a moment to process his words. Oh, right. These were Rain ninja. "I didn't know them personally, though I'm sure no one will be happy to hear about this. While killing is permitted here it's certainly frowned upon – especially when done in such a manner."

"If it's any consolation, this was done by…"

Naruto cut him off. "I know who it was. Sabaku no Gaara and his siblings – though I doubt the puppeteer or his sister had much of a hand in this mess."

"Sabaku… I am sorry for that, then."

Kiba blinked. "What does his name have to do with it?"

Naruto calmly appraised the Inuzuka. "His clan name is important when you consider that it is also shared by the sitting Kazekage. In fact that team is composed of the Kazekage's three children. Exacting some form of retribution on them in or out of this tournament becomes more complex as a result, you see."

Hinata shuffled uneasily. Naruto couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor girl. She didn't seem to have the constitution for this sort of work.

"So just because they're the Kazekage's kids they get to get away with doing that? I'm telling you, that Gaara kid is crazy! How could anyone let him into a tournament like this?" Kiba's nerves were obviously still rattled and he was practically ranting now.

Shino seemed to have caught onto that fact. "This tournament is about showing a country's strength, Kiba. Even if he is unstable, he is still a powerful ninja."

"B-but why did he act like that? Why did he kill those people?"

Naruto turned to the introverted girl and stared at her quietly for a moment. What could it hurt? "Gaara suffers from a rare condition that not only grants him unique powers over sand – which I assume you saw firsthand – but also adversely affects his psyche. The result is a very powerful but unstable warrior."

Shino pushed his sunglasses up his nose in response, while Kiba gave an indignant shout.

"What sort of _condition_ turns you into a bloodthirsty monster, huh?"

Naruto crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow in the dog trainer's direction. "Well, sealing a bijuu into your newborn son _can_ cause such a condition to manifest, if you catch my meaning."

"Are you telling us that Sabaku no Gaara is a demon host?" Shino was finally showing some emotion now. His voice betrayed his shock and concern.

"That's what I'm telling you. And if your team manages to pass this portion of the exam, I would suggest avoiding him at all costs. If you find yourself pitted against him, give up immediately before the fight can start. Even the proctors may not be able to stop him once he gets hold of you."

Shino stood as straight as a board while Kiba just nodded, eyes wide. Strangely enough, it was Hinata who was the first to speak.

"Why are you telling us this?"

Naruto turned and let his eyes wander across the clearing before looking back at the three Konoha ninja. "This may be a tournament in which killing is acceptable and common, but it is still just that – a tournament. I just don't care to see any more lives wasted for the sake of something as meaningless as rank."

Kiba nodded again. "Well thanks for the info and advice. We'll be sure to pass it on when we get the chance."

Naruto turned to leave. "No problem."

He paused then and looked down at himself carefully, brows furrowing in a pained grimace. "Bugs…" Naruto's accusing gaze locked with Shino's for an instant before he disappeared in a cloud of white smoke.

"What the… you didn't have to do that, Shino!"

The tall boy ignored his partner's outburst completely, choosing to speak quietly to himself.

"A shadow clone? How interesting…"

* * *

Naruto spent most of the first night scouring the forest – making sure, of course, that he kept his distance from the rogue Sannin running amok. It wasn't particularly difficult. Who else but the legendary ninja could or would set off such a large scale Great Breakthrough jutsu in the midst of the exam?

He couldn't make his next move until the Sannin was well and truly gone.

In the meantime, Naruto amused himself by robbing unsuspecting genin squads of their scrolls – destroying all but two. It was better to be prepared in case his team ran into unanticipated trouble. His many clones throughout the Forest of Death transformed into various three-man teams that he had caught sight of during the first portion of the exam and proceeded to attack at random - relieving three teams of their scrolls quickly.

Then he decided to mix things up and began disguising his clones as teams from the same village as their targets. While a number of teams – especially those from villages other than Konoha – thought nothing of it, others were truly shocked at the apparent betrayal of their supposed allies.

It was comical.

Best of all was when one of Naruto's squads transformed into perfect copies of the team they chose to attack. In the chaos that ensued, one of his poor victims had almost managed to eviscerate his teammate on the end of a kunai. The young team's inexperience was obvious when they so easily confused their friends with their foes.

Perhaps they would be better coordinated the next time they chose to take the Exam.

It wasn't until the early hours of the morning of the second day that Naruto sought out his real target. The poor pink haired girl – Sakura – was barely managing to stay awake. At least she had had the willpower to protect her team through the night – even though he doubted that she'd be capable of putting up much of a defense if pressed.

He quickly scouted the surroundings and found two hastily constructed traps. Upon closer inspection, he was mildly impressed to find that they had been built to work in conjunction with one another – the first a fairly obvious pitfall and the second a swinging log held in place by thin ninja wire that was barely discernable in the early morning light even to his trained eyes.

The girl may have come off as a horrible ninja, but at least she was clever.

Avoiding her notice was simple given her level of alertness. She barely spared a second glance at a squirrel that wandered into the clearing beyond scaring it away from her first trap.

Taking stock of his surroundings one last time, Naruto decided that now was the time to act. He jumped down from his perch amongst the thick canopy and landed next to the hollowed out tree that the girl had secured her two comatose teammates in - only five feet from the exhausted kunoichi.

Her nerves were an absolute wreck. She started badly at the sound of his landing and clutched a kunai close to her chest, eyes gazing around madly before falling on his unassuming form.

"Hey there."

Sakura hunched over and took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves while never taking her eyes off of his own. "What do you want? Can't you see my team is in no condition to fight?"

Naruto raised his gloved hands before him in an effort to placate her. "Relax. I'm not here to hurt you or your team."

The girl shuffled backwards into the hollow of the tree, obviously trying to put herself between Naruto and her helpless comrades. "Then what do you want?"

Naruto lowered his hands only to point at the resting boys. "Orochimaru of the Sannin attacked your group, right? I'm here to take a look at the cursed seal he gave the Uchiha." He paused for a moment in thought. "At least I'm assuming he gave him a cursed seal."

Sakura's eyes widened in fear as she strengthened her two handed grip on the kunai before her. "How do you know about that? Are you working for Orochimaru?"

Naruto let out a light chuckle at that. "No, no. Nothing like that. I'm just curious. I've never seen a cursed seal up close, ya know?"

Apparently, she did not. "That's what's giving Sasuke such a high fever? The cursed seal? What is it? What did Orochimaru do?"

Naruto was becoming impatient. "Let me in there and I'll answer all the questions I can."

The girl still didn't seem keen on letting him by.

"Look, I'll even let you hang onto my kunai pouch and shuriken holster. How about that?"

The girl's eyes went to the long pouch strapped to Naruto's right leg at his words. She furrowed her brows in thought for a moment before acquiescing. "Alright, fine. But you'd better not try anything."

Naruto nodded and removed his two equipment pouches before dropping them to the soft earth next to the girl. Then he stepped around her, completely ignoring the death grip she still had on her kunai.

Naruto crouched between the two unconscious boys and observed the Uchiha silently before turning his attention to the pale boy. "What happened to this one?"

Sakura had stood and moved behind Naruto to look over his shoulder. She still clutched the kunai closely to her as though it were a lifeline. "Sai got knocked out fighting Orochimaru. I'm not exactly sure what's wrong with him." Upon seeing Naruto reach out to lift his head, the girl panicked. "What are you doing?"

Naruto turned to look at her over his shoulder. "I was going to examine him to see what the problem is."

"Are you a medic ninja then?"

"I have some training."

The kunoichi backed off a bit after that. "Oh, alright. Can you tell what's wrong with him?"

Naruto carefully lifted the boy's head and turned it gently from side to side. There was nothing wrong there aside from an ugly welt on the back of his skull. Lifting an eyelid Naruto confirmed his diagnosis. "Looks like a concussion. He should be alright after a few more hours of rest." The blond turned his eyes to the real prize before continuing. "Did you see where Orochimaru put the seal?"

"On his neck, I think. He bit him on his neck."

Naruto had to turn around from his crouched position at that. "Did you say he _bit_ him?"

Sakura just nodded, a look of confusion laced with fear written across her face.

The blond turned back around. "Now that's fucked up." He pulled down the Uchiha's high collar and began to look for the strange seal, finally finding it on the back of the boy's neck at the junction where it met his left shoulder. "Alright, I see it. Do you mind coming over here and holding him on his side while I take a look?"

Sakura looked unsure for a moment before nervously nodding and moving to Naruto's side. She carefully placed her kunai on the soft ground on her left side where the blond couldn't reach it before looking to Naruto for instruction.

"I'm going to roll him on his side. I need you to hold him like that while I look at the seal, alright?"

He received a nod in reply.

Naruto rolled the body up onto its side and laid his hand over the strange purple seal. He could see the two bloody holes where the snake freak had bitten the boy now.

Yuck.

"What does it do?" Sakura apparently wasn't content with just watching.

"It creates a secondary source of chakra within a person's body while slowly corrupting their mind – enslaving them to Orochimaru. The chakra is incredibly harmful to the body since it's not only highly corrosive but also unnatural and foreign." Naruto indicated that Sakura could lower the Uchiha back down and they both sat back from the boy.

"In short, it's a quick and easy path to power with rather dire consequences for those who abuse it. I can only imagine it would appeal to ninja who aren't picky about who or what they have to sacrifice to achieve greater strength."

Naruto turned his attention to the pink haired girl beside him. "Sasuke here should be fine so long as he understands that there are consequences that come with using this power." He paid close attention to the worried expression that graced the kunoichi's face. Perhaps the Uchiha wasn't so noble as to resist Orochimaru's lure?

"How do you know so much about all this?"

Naruto didn't respond. He walked outside of the hollowed tree and retrieved his kunai and shuriken pouches before strapping them back on. "Perhaps instead of asking me more questions, you should be attending to your guests?"

Sakura gave him a strange look as she followed him out, her kunai back in her hands.

"Have a rough night, pinky? How about you, metalhead?"

Naruto grinned behind his re-breather. "Ooh, I like that one. How long have you been mulling it over, I wonder? You've had nearly an hour now and that was the best you could come up with? Shame."

The boy who had spoken wore camouflage pants of dark blue and gray, along with his two teammates. His light gray shirt was adorned with the kanji for "death," written three times. His gunmetal faceplate – not unlike Naruto's – sported a lone musical note engraved in its center. He scoffed at Naruto's retort and stood from his seated perch on a thick, winding root with a look of hatred on his face.

"Enough. Wake Sasuke, we wish to fight him." The speaker this time crouched low – his hunched back exaggerated by the large fur mantle he wore that trailed down his back to hang past his knees. He sported a loose gi whose long sleeves hung limply at his sides and covered his hands completely. His scalp and most of his face were covered by white bandages, which gave him the appearance of a burn victim. Maybe he was one?

The third member of the team – a kunoichi who appeared to be a few years older than Naruto and the girl beside him – wore a light gray, unadorned, sleeveless jacket similar to the blond's own armored attire. She stepped forward in what she most likely hoped was a menacing manner.

Naruto crossed his arms in front of him and leaned against the hollowed tree.

"Wake him up? How can I do that when Orochimaru knocked him out with his cursed seal?" Sakura seemed completely oblivious to the surprised expressions on the faces of the Sound ninja. "Orochimaru said he was from Sound too! Why are you here when he already attacked us? What do you want?"

The bandaged ninja stepped forward taking the role of the leader. "I don't know what that man is thinking, but we have our orders. Now wake up Sasuke or we'll kill you and your team."

Sakura was beginning to look desperate. Naruto avoided looking at her, but couldn't help but feel her gaze on him. "Tell them! Tell them that he can't wake up!"

Naruto looked back at her indifferently before turning to the three Sound ninja. "He can't wake up."

"Then he'll just have to die!" The "death" junkie sure was loud.

Naruto shrugged and continued lounging against the tree.

"Come on, Dosu. Let's just kill 'em already!"

The bandaged one – Dosu – spared his partner a glance with his good eye before speaking. "Wait a moment, Zaku." He stepped forward to Sakura's poorly disguised pitfall and bent down to lift the feeble covering meant to hide – or display – the hazard. "What a poor excuse for a trap. You really are a pathetic ninja, you know that?"

Sakura gave a small smirk – the first sign of a smile Naruto had seen on her face since meeting her in the forest – and casually cut the barely visible wire near the entrance to the hollow just as the three Sound ninja jumped to the attack.

Dosu's visible eye widened in mock surprise at the sight of a massive log hurtling towards his airborne team, but the look disappeared as quickly as it had come as he revealed the metal device on his right arm and used its power to tear through the massive hunk of wood.

Sakura's expression was priceless.

She was lucky though, for it seemed help had arrived just in the nick of time. The pink haired girl was spared the blow aimed at her head by the arrival of a green blur that sent the three attackers sprawling across the damp earth of the forest floor.

Naruto blinked at the form of Rock Lee standing tall before the fallen form of Sakura with a… squirrel… perched on his shoulder. That was odd.

"Don't worry Sakura, I promise to protect you 'til the day I die!"

It was incredibly corny in Naruto's opinion, but he'd heard stronger shinobi give dumber lines than that. Results were what mattered – or at least that's what he'd be telling himself after this was all said and done.

Dosu was the first to recover. "You may be strong with taijutsu, but there's a limit to what physical training and hard work can accomplish. I'll take pleasure in showing you the extent of your skill."

Naruto seriously doubted that this Dosu had even an inkling of where the "limit" for training existed. Still, he was interested to see how the taijutsu specialist handled this battle.

Dosu charged straight in brandishing his strange gauntlet. He seemed reliant on the thing.

The blond expected the taijutsu expert to lash out quickly before the gauntlet could come into play, but was somewhat shocked at what happened next.

Instead of attacking, Lee plunged his arm into the damp earth and pulled a truly massive root from beneath the spongy soil in order to block the Sound ninja's attack.

That was certainly unorthodox.

It was also rather brilliant.

Dosu seemed at a loss as to how to react. That hesitation would cost him. Before he could recover and defend himself, Lee had burst forward and planted his right arm and leg against the ground below the bandaged warrior before using the same kick to the jaw that he had utilized against Uchiha Sasuke. He jumped into the air, and mimicking the Sound ninja's shadow, wrapped him from behind with his own bandages. Dosu was well and truly caught, but the technique didn't end there. Lee grabbed him around the waist and plunged them both headfirst towards the forest floor while spinning at speeds impossible to achieve under normal circumstances.

That caught Naruto's eye.

Luckily for the captured ninja, his partner managed to build a cushion of air below his point of impact saving Dosu from a fatal separation between his head and neck.

Lee seemed weakened by his own attack, which only increased Naruto's curiosity. There were only a few abilities he knew of that worked quite like that – none of which he would expect to see used by a genin. Lee was too slow to stop the Sound ninja from attacking him with his sonic arm – which Dosu happily explained to his captive audience.

That was fairly stupid considering how much he seemed to rely on it in battle.

Even then – while he was laid out on the ground with his eardrum shattered and his head no doubt spinning – the green clad boy still managed to get up and take another attack in Sakura's stead. It was fairly impressive in Naruto's estimation.

And the chivalrous fool still hadn't taken off the weights he was obviously wearing on his legs.

Lee threw up and passed out. Even a nut like him could only take so much abuse, it seemed.

"Well, that was annoying."

Naruto turned his gaze toward Zaku with a look of curiosity plastered on his face. The expression was mostly lost thanks to his re-breather.

"It doesn't matter. You take care of the girl, Zaku. I'll kill the Rain shrimp."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that pronouncement. "Don't be so hasty. I'm just here to observe. I have no reason to get involved here. Your business with the Konoha ninja here is just that – your business. I don't intend to interfere."

Sakura wore a betrayed expression on her face, her gaze darting between Dosu, Zaku, and Naruto in rapid succession.

Dosu's eye narrowed in what could have been a sneer. "You think we care? You've already overheard too much. Don't take it personally, we're just tying up loose ends."

Naruto finally stood up and uncrossed his arms, frowning all the while. He hadn't been expecting to fight here, but he needed to see how the Uchiha's predicament resolved itself. "Come on then. If you're so eager to fight, then let's have at it."

Dosu didn't need any more prodding – charging in as straight as an arrow. He was far too confident. Just as he did against Lee, the bandaged teen brought his right arm forward in a wide hook. Just like Lee, Naruto brought his left forearm up to block the Sound ninja's arm just before it connected with his head.

Dosu grinned under his bandages.

Naruto snorted at the stupidity of it all.

The blond's left arm quickly snaked around the metal gauntlet – his fingers finding purchase within the wide holes that granted the sonic weapon its ability. Pivoting his body, Naruto used his grip on the gauntlet to twist the bandaged ninja's arm violently.

Dosu didn't even have time to scream at the pain that accompanied his arm being wrenched out of its socket before Naruto's boot connected with his ribs in a sickening crunch that rang through the small clearing. The shocked ninja flailed like a rag doll as his body bounced across the forest floor before impacting solidly with a tree trunk twenty feet away.

His lone eye darted around wildly and he coughed violently. A red stain formed on the bandages covering his mouth. The teen couldn't believe what had just happened.

"Despite all your posturing, you're only a genin, so you probably haven't had much chance to fight against many opponents capable of advanced elemental manipulation." Naruto let his raised leg fall to the ground before resuming his former position against the tree trunk. "But for a wind user as accomplished as I am, your sound trick means absolutely nothing. After all, your sound waves have to travel through a medium in order to be effective. Since I control the air around my body, such a pathetic gimmick is completely useless." Naruto turned his gaze to the stunned Zaku next. "Don't even get me started on you. No one else here needed elective surgery in order to become a viable ninja."

Zaku and the raven-haired kunoichi seemed shaken from their shock at Naruto's words and quickly leapt to their teammate's side. Dosu rose slowly to his feet – still coughing intermittently – and gave Naruto an unsure look.

The blond just ignored it.

The bandaged ninja grunted as he popped his arm back into its socket against the tree behind him. "Zaku, Kin, kill the girl and her team. I'll be alright in a few minutes."

The two nodded and began an attack against Sakura, who performed about as well as could be expected of an obviously sub-par ninja. She did manage to stab Zaku though, which Naruto found amusing. The pink haired girl seemed to be on the verge of defeat when, lo and behold, the three-man team that had been hiding in the bushes the last ten minutes finally decided to jump in to help.

Naruto recognized the three as Shikamaru, Chouji, and the blonde harpy who had been all over the Uchiha prior to the first exam. While they each possessed interesting clan techniques that Naruto had only gotten a vague description of from Hanzou's journals, none of them seemed to be ready to face the relative power and ruthlessness of the Sound team.

Were all Konoha ninja so soft? That couldn't possibly be the case, given how many incredible shinobi the village had produced. Then what was it? To Naruto it seemed almost cruel to shelter the young ninja of this village to such an extent that experiences like Gaara's massacre and the Sound ninja's viciousness came as a shock to these genin.

But really, who was he to complain?

Thankfully, the three-ring circus that "Ino-Shika-Chou" versus Sound had become came to a halt with the arrival of the rest of Lee's squad. The Hyuuga seemed in no mood to let the Sound ninja off easily for knocking out his teammate.

"What's this? Some pathetic Sound declaring victory over barely-ninja? Leave now or I won't forgive you for what you did to my teammate."

Zaku's loud mouth just wouldn't quit. "Come on down here then and we'll settle up."

The Hyuuga didn't take his eyes off of the Sound ninja, but Naruto could tell his attention was elsewhere. "It doesn't look like that will be necessary."

Naruto turned around to find Uchiha Sasuke rising from his prone position in the hollow of the tree with an aura of sinister purple chakra whipping around his form. On the left side of his body – from his face to his foot – Naruto could see the black marks of the cursed seal creeping along his skin like ants in a line.

This is just what Naruto had been waiting for.

That, or for the Uchiha to die. The dark haired boy _did _have an awful lot of malicious, foreign chakra dumped into his system. While it was nothing compared to having a bijuu sealed inside of him, it was still a dangerous prospect even for one with the infamous Uchiha blood running through his veins.

"S-Sasuke."

The named boy ignored his teammate's concerned exclamation and stood staring at his marked arm. "This power – he gave it to me. I understand now…"

Naruto tuned him out as he went on to ramble a bit about avengers and his brother, Itachi. The unnatural power was obviously going to his head – not that Naruto could comment. He'd had issues of his own. Still did, if he were being honest with himself.

Sasuke's eyes panned over the crowd, pausing as they fell on Naruto. "Sakura, who did this to you?" He took a step in the blond's direction and his eyes flashed red.

Naruto didn't budge, his slit cerulean eyes meeting the Uchiha's, unwavering.

"We did."

Sasuke stopped and turned to face Zaku, the idiot. "Is that right?"

"Zaku, wait! Don't you understand?"

"No need to worry, Dosu. There's no reason to be afraid of this half dead idiot. I'll kill them all with one blast!"

Naruto decided that now would be an excellent time to move, seeing as he was still leaning up against the hollowed tree only feet from Hatake's team. Zaku's eyes followed him is he slowly stepped a few paces over and found another tree trunk to support him.

Zaku sneered. "I'll deal with you after them, then."

Naruto shrugged. "If there is an after."

"One blast, you were saying?" Sasuke didn't seem to have the patience or inclination to be left out of the spotlight.

The Oto ninja let loose with his technique then – even larger than before. Naruto still wasn't particularly impressed. He could get the same effect from the Great Breakthrough technique with little effort.

The Uchiha was fast, and managed to scoop up his two teammates and race around the wall of pressurized air before it slammed into the tree where they had been hidden through the night. Zaku was ready to announce his victory even before his technique was complete, and paid for it dearly when the Uchiha sent him sprawling with a backhand and then followed up with a clever shuriken and fire ninjutsu combination trick that left the fool wide open. Naruto even let loose a small chuckle when the arrogant bastard got his arms snapped by the vengeful Sasuke.

Now there was some poetic justice.

All in all the Uchiha's abilities seemed to be significantly enhanced by the seal's effects. On a good day the boy could probably even tousle with a low ranking jounin with that level of power. It was interesting. Staking out the boy had certainly been worthwhile. Naruto wasn't privy to all of Pain's intelligence on Orochimaru's operations, but in the case that the fallen Sannin had a number of such cursed seal users under his banner he could most likely cause even some of the stronger villages quite a headache.

The Oto kunoichi – Kin, Naruto had overheard – was unconscious due to the friendly fire her teammate had subjected her to during the Konoha ninja's assault. That left only the bloodied figure of Dosu standing. Naruto had to respect that. Given that he had a number of ribs broken and his two teammates were unconscious, the bandaged ninja managed to put on a strong face even in front of so much opposition.

"You're next. I hope you entertain me more than this trash." Sasuke appeared to still be going strong.

Naruto waited with eager anticipation for the one-sided fight that never came. Sakura had wrapped the Uchiha in an embrace from behind and put an end to the boy's cursed seal driven rampage. Now Sasuke got to experience the wonders of a chakra low – the same type that Naruto was often subjected to after relinquishing Kyuubi's power.

Dosu was at least smart enough to take advantage of the opportunity and promptly left with his team after giving Sasuke his earth scroll. Naruto found it disappointingly anticlimactic.

"Well, that was enlightening." Stepping forward towards the winded Uchiha, Naruto instantly found himself under the scrutiny of no less than fourteen eyes. The Ino-Shika-Chou team had emerged from the bushes after the Oto ninja's departure and stood around the injured Sasuke and Sakura leveling Naruto with mistrustful glances. "It seems you managed to survive after all."

Sakura's eyes widened. "You mean the cursed seal could have killed him?"

The rest of the assembly quickly shifted their focus to the pink haired girl in confusion.

"Given the amount and nature of that chakra, I'd say it's a miracle he survived, actually." Heads snapped back around to Naruto at his pronouncement.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

Naruto shrugged. He was doing that a lot. "No need to crush your hopes. It all turned out alright in the end, anyways."

Sasuke looked slightly pensive, but his desire to stare hatefully at Naruto won out.

"No wonder that chakra looked so odd. Are you so incapable that you have to rely on the strength of others to win your fights, Uchiha?"

At least the Hyuuga's comment relieved Naruto of Sasuke's stare. Now Naruto just had to leave before a fight broke out. Then again, that might be amusing to watch.

No. He had other loose ends to tie up.

"And just where do you think you're going?"

It was Lee's other teammate – the kunoichi. She had landed ten feet from him with a kunai held loosely in her right hand. Maybe this would be more difficult than he originally intended.

"I have to meet back up with my team, of course. They're probably at the tower by now. I doubt Kaoru will be too happy about waiting up all night for me."

The girl blinked at his flippant response.

"And just what were you doing here to begin with, Yellow?" This time, it was Shikamaru.

Sasuke's voice cut across the clearing. Apparently he was finished glaring at the Hyuuga. "It doesn't matter what he was doing. Hand over your scrolls and we might let you go without trouble."

Naruto just looked up to the white-eyed boy, who appeared as impassive as ever. "What do you think, Hyuuga?"

For nearly half a minute, all Naruto received was an emotionless stare. The boy was trying to make him sweat some, it seemed. "He doesn't have any scrolls on him."

"Then take us to your team. If you're sure they've passed already then they should have both scrolls by now." The Uchiha wasn't going to let it rest.

"Sasuke! Please stop. He helped me… us… sort of."

Naruto looked at Sakura one last time. "Don't think much of it. I was just satisfying my own curiosity." Turning to the rest of the gathering, he said his goodbyes. "Good luck with the rest of the exam, all. Hopefully I'll see a few of you in the third round."

He left to the sound of an indignant yell that sounded a lot like Sasuke. It didn't matter though – he wasn't being followed. Three minutes later he met up with a shadow clone, which dutifully handed over the two scrolls that he had spared from destruction.

Naruto had one more stop to make before meeting up with his own team at the tower.

* * *

"Anko! I have another update to make!"

She turned quickly, causing her trench coat to whip around as she glared at the door. "Idiot! I thought I told you not to interrupt me. I'm in the middle of an important discussion with Lord Hokage here."

The chuunin turned quickly to find the amused face of the old ninja looking back at him from under the rim of his large red and white hat. "F-Forgive me, Lord Hokage."

The old man waved him off. "Not at all. We were just finishing up. Go ahead and make your report."

The man nodded quickly. "Of course, sir. ANBU just reported another squad of dead ninja in the forest of death."

Anko widened her eyes in concern. "Another one? That's four now, including those killed by Orochimaru before the exam started. What happened this time? Was it the Kazekage's children again?"

"No ma'am. As you know, they finished the exam nearly twelve hours ago and it appears the only ones they killed were the Ame team we found earlier."

The Hokage pulled his hat low over his eyes at that. He regretted allowing them to enter the exam, knowing just who they were and what young Gaara contained. The rumors of Gaara's instability and the Kazekage's own efforts to rectify the problem were no secret to those shinobi of Hiruzen's stature. Still, in order to maintain good relations with Sand it had been necessary to allow them into Konoha. "Just who was it this time?"

The chuunin turned to address the Hokage. "A Sound team, Lord Hokage. They were found near the western edge of the forest."

Anko had a suspicion as to what she would hear next. She had had her own experience in that area just the previous night. Thank goodness that the ANBU captains had such excellent timing. "Were they killed by ninja?"

She received a vehement shake of the head in return. "No ma'am. Their injuries are consistent with the tigers that inhabit the area. Their bodies were covered in slashes, though it appears that they were suffering from injuries sustained earlier in a battle with other examinees."

"So they escaped their attackers and left the dense forest to tend their injuries, only to be ambushed by the giant tigers. It's a shame, but those are the realities of the Forest of Death."

"That was the conclusion I came to also, sir." The chuunin put a hand to his chin in thought. "Though it is a bit strange that there were no bite marks."

Anko laughed morbidly. "I can't blame the tigers for that. I wouldn't put anything that Orochimaru got his scaly hands on near my mouth either."

The chuunin didn't know how to respond to that, though he supposed that she did have a point.

"I'll leave things here to you then, Anko. Bird and Boar will remain with you in case Orochimaru makes another appearance, though I am fairly certain he won't be showing his face again in this exam. I'll return in four days' time to explain the final round to those who pass this stage of the exam." The old man stood slowly and left the room, giving both Anko and the chuunin small nods as he left.

"You can count on me, Lord Hokage."

* * *

As it turned out, Kaoru hadn't been thrilled to find out that her teammate had replaced himself with clones and was out wandering the forest alone for the first night. She had displayed her displeasure by disemboweling the unfortunate clone that had relayed the information to her when they had reached the tower sometime in the wee hours of the morning on the second day. Consequently, Naruto had been particularly careful when approaching his disgruntled teammates where they waited with his remaining clones at one of the many sealed doors at midmorning that same day.

Kaoru, Akira, and Naruto's three clones had managed to gather a total of four scrolls – one that they started with, one which they took from a Grass team late the previous night, and two more early that morning when a Konoha team had wandered right onto them while trying to enter the tower. Those three were currently tied up and lying against the side of the tower. The relief they exhibited when Naruto had finally appeared gave the blond the sense that they had been the unlucky recipients of Kaoru's ire over discovering his absence.

Poor bastards.

When they finally entered the tower – after a solid fifteen-minute tirade against Naruto – it took all of fifteen seconds to deduce that they needed to open two of the scrolls. In doing so, they summoned a Konoha chuunin proctor who took the four extra scrolls the Rain team produced with a mystified expression and then sent them on their way to their temporary residence within the tower. Because they finished so quickly, Team Thirteen would be able to enjoy four and a half days of free time within the tower while they waited for the second exam to end.

It sounded great until Naruto realized that, unlike their dorms in the village, these team dorms were three man rooms. While the blond had no problem sharing space with the opposite sex – he'd done it many times before on missions, after all – he wasn't sure how Kaoru would take it.

As it turned out, not well.

Naruto barely made it through her long-winded speech about… something or other. He decided not to touch her things and leave it at that. If she expected anything else from him… well that was just too damn bad.

The first hiccup in their arrangement occurred when he was returning from the men's communal shower just down the hall from their small room. Thankfully there had been no one else present due to the current low population of the tower. Not many teams had managed to pass so far. As a result, Naruto could mercifully doff his constricting outfit and get the dirt and blood out from under his nails. Those could get particularly foul if left to fester.

After a long, hot shower, Naruto padded back to his room in only a towel. Well, two actually – one around his waist and one around his head. It took real effort to dry out his wild mane of hair, after all.

Opening the door to his team's room and stepping through, he was greeted with a crystal-cracking scream. Slapping his hands over his ears, Naruto absently wondered if Kaoru had been working on her own form of sonic attack.

"What? What is it?" Akira sat up from his cot abruptly with a kunai in hand and stared around wildly for whatever threatened them. He had opted to take a nap to recover after staying up the previous night in the forest.

"Holy shit! You've got a set of lungs on you, you know that?" Naruto slammed the door quickly behind him and deftly grabbed Kaoru's arm – which was arcing toward him with a kunai in hand. "Calm down, dammit! It's just me!"

Akira's eyes settled on the half naked Naruto and he visibly relaxed, while Kaoru struggled in vain to free her arm from the blond's iron grip.

"Calm down Kaoru, that's just what Yellow looks like under the getup."

The girl's struggling died down as his words registered in her mind.

"Are you done being psychotic, then?"

"W-What the hell happened to you?"

Naruto looked down at himself before turning back to the shaken girl. "What do you mean? I've looked like this for a long time now."

"But your face! It's totally creepy!"

Naruto frowned and unconsciously licked one of his fang-like canines, causing Kaoru to shiver slightly. "I can't really help that, now can I? Plus, I think it gives me a unique appeal." As he said the last part his frown morphed into a playful smile, which unfortunately looked to Kaoru like he was sizing her up for dinner.

"Unique. Well, that's one way to say it." Akira had slipped his kunai back to wherever he kept it and rubbed his eyes blearily.

Kaoru recovered quickly, and only moments later, was surveying his upper body with intensity.

"Are we done, then?" Naruto was getting a bit tired of the scrutiny.

"No." Kaoru stepped forward and jabbed Naruto in the front of his left shoulder - just above the armpit - a bit harder than was necessary. "What's that?" Her eyes continued wandering along his arms and stopped just above each wrist. "And those."

Naruto looked at the complex circular markings tattooed on his body for a moment before replying. "They're seals, and you missed one." Naruto rolled his right arm to reveal the identical tattoo that rested on the outside of his right shoulder.

Akira sat up straighter on his cot, apparently interested in the proceedings. "What do they do?"

"They just store things."

"Like?"

"Well, the two on my forearms are for shuriken or kunai, but really I can store pretty much anything of similar size in one."

Kaoru again poked him in his shoulder. That was getting annoying. "And this one?"

Naruto glanced down at the tattoo on his left shoulder – only five inches removed from where he'd wanted it. Unfortunately, Pain had told him in no uncertain terms that he was not to seal anything onto his torso for fear of it interfering with the Kyuubi's seal array. "That's something precious to me."

With that, Naruto walked over to his own cot and began pulling his clothing together. He didn't feel the need to elaborate anymore for his teammate's sakes.

This was one of the few things that Naruto held close to his heart.

* * *

"Hey, Yellow! You made it!" Kiba was waving Naruto over from across the small cafeteria that the tower operated in order to feed the examinees that passed before the five-day time limit was over.

Naruto changed course from where his teammates were sitting to join the dog tamer and his two teammates – both of which observed him carefully as he approached.

"Shino wanted to apologize for what happened yesterday."

The tall boy didn't appear to want to do any such thing, and though his eyes were hidden behind dark shades, Naruto could practically feel the glare he was sending his teammate.

"It's alright, Kiba. He's got nothing to apologize for. It was part of the exam, after all – he was just being prudent."

At least that seemed to dissipate the Aburame's ire a bit.

"I was impressed with your solid clone. I haven't seen any other ninja our age able to form one."

Naruto couldn't be sure, but it almost sounded like Shino could form a solid clone as well. He'd have to store that information away for later use. "I have a lot of chakra, so the shadow clone is a great jutsu for me. I use it a lot, as I'm sure you'll see in the next round – assuming we fight."

Shino nodded. "The third round is one on one battles, so I'm sure we'll all be seeing one another's techniques."

Kiba was practically jumping up and down with enthusiasm. "Yeah! And you'd better hope you're not matched up against me and Akamaru, because we'll kick your ass!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the boy's enthusiasm. Slowly, he reached up with his hands and unhooked the massive re-breather from his faceplate before setting it softly on the tabletop next to his food. "Is that right?"

His eyes danced with amusement at the shocked looks plastered on Kiba and Hinata's faces. Even Shino's eyebrows rose above his round sunglasses.

Kiba was the first to recover, his tongue unconsciously darting out and whetting his lips while passing over his own larger than normal canine teeth. They had nothing on Naruto's fangs, however. "Wicked."

Naruto gave a mischievous smirk before turning to his food. "I'm full of surprises, so I'd be careful making such bold statements if I were you."

"Heh. Doesn't matter. Me and Akamaru are unbeatable."

Naruto nodded at the Inuzuka. The kid had plenty of confidence, at the least. Shino still appeared to be staring at Naruto's face. After a minute of watching him eat, the boy stood and collected his own tray. "Perhaps we should get some training in, Kiba, Hinata. I hear that there are practice floors on the second floor."

The Hyuuga girl nodded quietly and stood. Kiba gave his teammate a confused look before rising as well and giving Naruto a wide smile. "Well, see ya 'round, Yellow."

"Sure thing, Kiba. Good luck with your training."

With the three Konoha genin gone, Naruto turned most of his attention to his lunch – a plain fish and rice dish – which when seasoned with a liberal helping of salt was surprisingly edible. Not five minutes later he looked up at the presence of a blond haired kunoichi that he had first caught sight of the day before. The cafeteria had cleared out while he had been talking with Kiba and company, and the girl was probably a bit lonely. Upon seeing his face however, her eyes widened and she quickly turned to find a place at an empty table.

"Sit down. I don't bite." He enthusiastically bit into his meal. "Unless you're on the menu, of course."

She looked a bit apprehensive at that, but seeing no excuse to avoid him and remembering how starved she was for companionship that wasn't one of her brothers, she set down her tray across from Naruto and settled herself onto the bench.

"Hi."

"Hey there. I'm Yellow."

The girl visibly made to pull herself together. His appearance had apparently startled her more than he had first suspected.

"I'm Temari."

Naruto grinned widely, which had the effect of causing Temari to lean back a bit in her seat. "Cool. So when did you get in here? Sometime this morning?"

She shook her head slowly, lost in thought. "No, we actually finished just after sunset last night."

This didn't surprise Naruto, of course, given that he had stumbled across Gaara's path of destruction the prior evening. "Really? That's pretty damn impressive. You guys are really that strong, huh?"

Temari gave him an odd look before answering. "We're the strongest team in this exam, if that's what you're trying to get at."

"Wow, that was blunt. Guess you saved me some time though. I noticed your fan there, does that mean you use wind techniques?"

Before the kunoichi could answer, a cold voice cut across the table. "Temari, get away from him."

Naruto looked up to find Gaara standing a dozen feet from their table, sand slowly swirling around him in anxiety. "Better be careful there, that stuff'll ruin your lunch. No one likes eating dirt, after all."

"What's wrong, Gaara?"

"Get away from him. Right now, Temari." The sandy-haired boy stared at Naruto, who returned the gesture with a vicious smirk.

"We were just talking, Gaara. No need to be rude."

Temari looked at Naruto strangely upon hearing her brother's name from his lips.

"Now, Temari."

The blond kunoichi rose from her seat and moved to her brother's side, casting glances between the two younger boys in confusion.

"Still having your little temper tantrums, Gaara?"

"I'm going to kill you when we fight. I'm going to kill you. Mother will have your blood." His eyes were starting to look a little crazy.

Naruto calmly reached for the glass of water sitting next to his tray before taking a drink. "Same old song and dance then, is it? Well then, you can tell your mother that _if_ we fight, I'll be taking just what I threatened the last time we met." He turned to look Gaara directly in the eye, a spiteful sneer spreading across his lips. "If that little trick you showed in the first exam is any indication, though, you shouldn't have any trouble without it."

Gaara brought a palm to his forehead and screwed his face up for a moment before dropping his arm and spinning on his heel. As he began walking out of the cafeteria, he turned his head to look over his shoulder. "I will kill you. I will prove my existence. No one can hurt me and get away with it. I won't allow my existence to disappear."

With that, he left.

Temari's face had slowly twisted into a look of horror as the conversation progressed. "You… you were the one?" She shook her head in consternation. "He wouldn't let anyone near him for a week after he was attacked. He almost starved to death!"

Naruto stared at her impassively. "Did he now?" He took a final bite of his meal before setting his chopsticks down. "I don't care. He tried to kill me. He got off easy."

"It's not his fault! If you only knew…"

Naruto gathered his dishes onto his tray and turned to her once again. "He's dangerous, and that's all that matters. He can't control his power, or his urges. He's an animal. If he comes after me, then I'll simply do what is done to all dangerous animals." The boy walked past the older kunoichi to return his tray at the end of the serving counter.

"I'll put him down."

* * *

"One more thing. It seems that Kin, Dosu, and Zaku didn't make it out of the forest."

"That hardly matters now. I'll simply take the place of your jounin sensei and no one will be the wiser until it is too late to act."

"Very well, Lord Orochimaru. I can only hope that Sasuke is as interesting as you hope him to be."

"I expect him to be all that and more, Kabuto. All that and more."

* * *

"Whether it was because the first two exams were too simple or because the field is exceptionally skilled in this round of exams, there are too many examinees still in the running and a preliminary round must be held immediately."

Shocked indignation was the response that the third examiner – Gekkou Hayate – received from the majority of the twenty-one genin before him.

"Before we begin, I will ask if any of you wish to withdraw from this round."

Only one hand went up, and Naruto had to admit that he was hardly surprised by the owner of said hand. Kabuto had rubbed him the wrong way when they first met, and this decision only cemented in Naruto's mind that there was something deeper about the older teen than was presented by his friendly facade. As far as Naruto could tell, he didn't seem to be injured in any discernable way.

Apparently the jounin proctors and the Hokage were equally baffled by the withdrawal.

Strange, that. He'd have to be wary if he ever met up with Kabuto again.

"No more withdrawals? Very well. The board behind me will randomly select match ups and display them. The first two examinees chosen are to stay here while the rest of you may make your way to the balconies on either side of the room."

Naruto caught Hatake Kakashi having whispered words with his dark haired student on his way up to the balcony. The man discreetly indicated the seal on Sasuke's neck and then leapt up to the balcony behind his other two charges, ignoring the frown plastered on the boy's face. At least the higher ups of Konoha were taking the cursed seal seriously, even if the Uchiha was not.

Naruto joined his team on the balcony and greeted his sensei quietly. The man just nodded back at him. He had apparently decided to cut down on the awkwardness by not speaking to Naruto at all.

Not surprisingly, the blond was perfectly fine with that.

"Uchiha Sasuke. Akado Yoroi. Are you both ready?" The two opponents nodded curtly, not taking their eyes off of one another.

"Very well. Begin!"

* * *

**A/N:** Just to let you know, some of the fights in this preliminary round will be canon compliant while some will obviously be different. I already have the match-ups planned out.

**Next Chapter: **_Keep Yourself Alive_ by Queen.


	10. Keep Yourself Alive

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Posted: **12/29/08

**A/N: **I got an interesting question about Gaara's name in a review, and I thought I'd address that here. In chapter nine I said that Sabaku was his clan name. I know that this isn't explicitly stated in the manga, but I thought it made a good deal of sense.

Now on its own, "of the Desert" may sound like a title or a description given to Gaara due to his control over sand. However, this seems less likely when you take into account the name of another Suna ninja – Akasuna no Sasori. Since Sasori left the sand village when he was fifteen, I find it unlikely that he somehow earned "of the Red Sands" as a title despite how brilliant or bloodthirsty he may have been. It sure sounds like it could be a clan name to me.

So why do Suna ninjas have a "no" in their names? Simple. It's just how they do names in Suna.

In olden times, the family or clan names of people were often based off of where they hailed from. This was true of western cultures as well as eastern. For example, my own family name is a city in England. Basically, names were derived as such: (given name) of (place). "Of (place)" was a modifier of the given name. Likewise, in Japan names were given similarly, only the formula was: (place) no (given name). "(place) no" was the modifier of the given name, since the Japanese character "no" links a modifier and the noun that follows it. In this case, "no" translates to "of" or "of the." All Japanese names were constructed thusly in olden times. Kishimoto Masashi would be written Kishimoto no Masashi, or "Masashi of the Kishimoto (clan)."

Nowadays the "no" is dropped, but we can still see its influence in the fact that, in Japanese, the given name follows the family name just as the modified noun follows the modifier.

Therefore, in my mind, the ninja of Suna simply form their names in a more classic style than the modern style used in the other nations that we've seen.

**Chapter Title:** _Keep Yourself Alive_ by Queen.

* * *

_Orochimaru left our organization after attempting to steal the body of Uchiha Itachi using an original ninjutsu he created in order to achieve a sort of faux immortality. We do not know what his motivations or goals are, but from the way he covets the Sharingan's powers I can only assume he wishes to copy as many ninjutsu techniques as possible. The man has a reputation for coveting knowledge of the ninja arts above all else._

_Whether he wishes to use these techniques towards some purpose or simply to gather knowledge for its own sake, I do not know. The man was never accused of being stable, and I can tell you from personal experience that he is as disgusting an individual as I have ever met. He will seek out the youngest Uchiha in the hopes of taking his body as his own. The man has a reputation for seducing young ninja with promises of power in order to earn their loyalty. He will mark Sasuke with his brand in the hopes of luring him away from the Leaf Village._

_Do not, under any circumstances, draw the Sannin into a fight. Even as strong as you are now you cannot hope to defeat him, and I am not sure how strongly the threat of directly defying Akatsuki weighs in his mind._

_He may well kill you._

_

* * *

  
_

"An Uchiha? Weren't they wiped out a few years ago?"

Akira leaned over the railing to get a better look before answering Kaoru with a shrug. "I guess not."

"It's a famous clan. This should be good."

Naruto was silent as he joined his two teammates at the railing. He too was interested in how Sasuke would perform – especially considering that the boy was still likely having difficulty with his new seal. They had been one of the last teams to emerge from the forest and had little more than an hour to recover from the ordeals of the second task before being thrust into this preliminary.

"Is he just going to dodge around all day? I thought the Uchiha were ninjutsu specialists. What's he thinking?"

Kaoru's questions seemed to sum up what most of the observers were thinking. The large Konoha ninja that he was up against was attacking with taijutsu relentlessly while the younger Uchiha did his best to scramble away while occasionally wincing in pain.

The cursed seal was certainly hindering him here.

"He looks injured. I'm surprised he didn't withdraw like the pink haired girl asked him to." Akira had been paying more attention to things than Naruto had given him credit for, it seemed.

A few cheers went up from the younger Leaf ninja on the walkway opposite the Ame team when Sasuke tripped the older ninja and locked him in a solid arm bar hold. The mild celebration was replaced by gasps only a few moments later when the hold was released by a coughing, wincing Sasuke.

Kaoru frowned. "What happened? It looked like he had him and suddenly he's coughing up blood? What sort of technique did the big guy use?"

"Some sort of shock, maybe." Akira too was frowning at the odd fight below. "But why is the Uchiha still letting him get close when he has that type of melee ability?"

"There it is again. What's he doing?"

Naruto dipped his head down towards the fight below where Yoroi had clamped his hand onto Sasuke's forehead. "It's a chakra drain technique."

Two heads swung to face Naruto before swiveling back down to the battle below, where Sasuke had just come to the same conclusion.

Kaoru narrowed her eyes in thought. "I've never seen a technique like that before. It seems almost too good to be true – stealing other people's chakra like that."

"It has its drawbacks." While uncommon, there were a number of similar techniques used by ninja throughout the world to forcefully siphon chakra from their enemies in order to weaken or kill them. They were normally very useful against a vast range of ninja since they were notoriously difficult to defend against. The only major problem with them was that they didn't discriminate against what type of chakra they bled from their targets. "The range being one of them here."

"Yet the Uchiha is still trying to fight him hand to hand. Is he stupid?"

Naruto glanced to his left down the row only to find that the Suna team also seemed disappointed in Sasuke's performance. The boy clearly wasn't living up to anyone's expectations of him, though it certainly wasn't his fault.

A moment later that had changed.

Naruto was surprised to see Sasuke using the same kick that Lee had used against him in their short bout before the first stage, but quickly remembered that the Uchiha had been using his Sharingan at the time. He would have to be wary of using anything easily reproduced in front of the dark haired boy.

Then again, not much about Naruto's style was easily mimicked. The blond had never forgotten who the true villains were.

Sasuke's follow up attack was fairly impressive for something thought up on the fly, but even more impressive was his wrenching the creeping cursed seal back into dormancy halfway through his combo. Naruto shared the proctors' admiration of the act.

Good news for the Uchiha. Bad news for Orochimaru.

The match ended with Akado Yoroi planted firmly into the stone floor and Sasuke leaning heavily against Kakashi's leg. The white haired jounin waved off the medics and whisked the winded boy away while the medics placed Yoroi on a stretcher and carried him out. Naruto's eyes followed the older genin's jounin sensei as he too fled the arena. The man probably wanted to check on his student before berating him. Or consoling him. Naruto wasn't sure how they handled these things in Konoha.

"Well that was an interesting finish." Akira, as always, was as neutral as possible in his comments.

"Interesting? That arrogant moron almost lost just because he wanted to beat the other guy in close. What kind of ninja risks defeat over his ego?"

Naruto snorted. "Pretty much any kind. How many times have you ever run away from a fight?"

Kaoru sputtered for a moment before crossing her arms in front of her and huffing loudly. "It's not the same thing. Giving up and risking a loss just to prove a point can hardly be compared. One is about pride. The other is just about some arrogant sense of superiority. It's foolish."

"What if he was just trying to challenge himself?" Kaoru was so sure of her convictions that Naruto just couldn't help playing devil's advocate with her. "Maybe he didn't want an easy fight? After all, aren't we supposed to be working to better ourselves here?"

"I'm working to become a chuunin. I don't know or care what you want."

Naruto sighed and turned back to the arena below, where Aburame Shino and Akimichi Chouji were staring each other down. Or at least Shino was staring Chouji down. Maybe. Chouji just seemed a bit nervous, but a glance over his shoulder at a bearded man who must have been his sensei seemed to steel his resolve.

"Second match. Begin!"

"Here I come, Shino!" The tubby boy formed a hand seal and his body expanded until it was nearly spherical. He gave a war cry before pulling his hands, feet and head into his bulging torso and started rolling towards the so far silent and still Aburame.

"You have got to be kidding me. That's a ninja attack?"

Naruto shrugged. "I hear the more powerful members of that clan can grow to be five stories tall. How'd you like to fight a giant?"

Kaoru eyed him skeptically before shaking her head slowly and continuing to watch the match.

Shino was doing a good job of dodging the rolling monstrosity that was Chouji. Every time the meat tank would pass him by, the tall boy would brush the Akimichi's side with his palm. Naruto had a good idea of what he was doing, but the rest of the spectators seemed confused at the strategy. Had Shino been able to keep his skills secret even from his Konoha peers?

Apparently, he had. Not three minutes into the match, Chouji shrank back to his normal size and glanced around with a confused look before trying to slowly regain his feet.

He had some trouble.

"I suggest you give up. You hardly have any chakra left." The Aburame was sure being diplomatic about things.

Chouji blinked at him a few times before adopting a confused look. "What did you do?"

Akira spoke up from beside Naruto. "Another chakra drain technique?"

"Not quite."

Down below, Shino pushed his dark glasses further up his nose. "I placed my destruction bugs on you and ordered them to devour your chakra. You don't have enough left to sustain your jutsu."

The chubby boy continued to look confused. "Destruction bugs?" It was then that he looked down at himself only to find small black beetles crawling in and out of the folds of his clothes.

Then he fell to the floor. And screamed.

Naruto knitted his eyebrows together, as did Shino below him. That wasn't a very dignified way of going about things – not to mention the inadvertent slight to Shino for carrying the bugs around with him all the time.

"Get them off me! Get them off me! I give up! I give up!" Chouji continued flailing around on the ground while the proctor gave the match to the bug user.

Quickly, so that his bugs weren't injured any further, Shino called them off of the Akimichi and they scuttled across the floor and back under the long jacket that he wore. Without a word, Shino climbed back up to the Konoha side of the room and met his two teammates, who both gave him words of congratulations. The pretty jounin who stood behind him offered her approval by way of a smile and a nod.

Chouji stomped up to his team and was offered words of condolence along with what looked to Naruto like some good-natured ribbing from his sensei. Probably something about screaming like a little girl at the sight of a few bugs.

The next match was very quick and very painful.

Tsurugi Misumi, the third teammate of Yoroi and Kabuto, was paired up against Kankuro of Suna. Naruto was interested to see how the puppeteer performed in his fight.

To Naruto, the entire fight was a disappointment. Like his teammate, Misumi was a one trick pony who could apparently disjoint all of the bones in his body by using his chakra. By doing so, he gained an impressive grapple hold over Kankuro before, to all appearances, breaking his neck.

There were some serious problems with Misumi's technique from Naruto's perspective. First off, if Misumi ever came up against an opponent his equal in strength or stronger, he'd be sunk. Threatening to break someone's neck wasn't much of a threat if you weren't strong enough to actually go through with it. Likewise, if his opponent was able to move even a bit, Misumi was susceptible to cuts and other painful attacks from his captive. Finally, the contortionist was exposed to attacks from friends and foes alike while clinging to his target for any prolonged period of time. The technique was fine for a one on one tournament against genin, but for anything else was fairly useless.

Of course, the other problem with the technique arose when you wrapped yourself around something that obviously wasn't the person you were trying to subdue. Misumi was given a nasty shock when the figure he had "killed" wrapped multiple wooden arms about his body and squeezed with an inhuman strength that broke a number of his ribs. The Leaf ninja had fallen for an old trick that was a favorite among puppeteers – who were notoriously susceptible to direct attacks. Kankuro had drawn him straight to the puppet instead of to himself, and Misumi had paid the price for his mistake.

The puppeteer made his way back up to his siblings and their sensei with a smug look on his face, completely oblivious to the tight lips of his sister and instructor. Apparently they thought his relying on such a simple ploy to win was a poor decision, despite its success.

"I've never seen a puppeteer before. Makes you think twice before attacking someone head on, doesn't it?"

Naruto turned to see their sensei nod in acknowledgement before replying. The man seemed to finally be relaxing around him. "Too true, Kaoru. I once had a bad experience with a puppeteer. If you think this kid was tricky though, you should see some of the master puppeteers in Suna. They can use three or even more puppets simultaneously. It's almost like fighting a whole squad of ninja."

"How do they carry so many puppets?"

Naruto answered quickly. "They seal them, how else?"

Kaoru's eyes darted to Naruto's left shoulder before she nodded. Turning back to the arena, she adopted a pensive expression.

Behind his re-breather, Naruto grinned. It gave him a perverse sort of pleasure yanking Kaoru around by playing a fool one moment and a genius the next. He blamed his urge to toy with her perceptions of him on the lack of contact with others that he'd been subjected to the last few years.

People he had been about to kill didn't count.

Despite the brevity of the previous matches and their one-sided natures, Naruto almost wished for another such match halfway through the fourth. Sakura had been matched up against another kunoichi – a teammate of the Akimichi's named Yamanaka Ino – and then began a heated conversation about their childhood rivalry. On top of that, when the match actually did begin they were so evenly matched, and so physically weak, that they couldn't land a decisive blow on one another.

All the while Naruto could hear Kaoru mumbling under her breath about how pathetic these two were and that they gave kunoichi a poor name. Looking around, the blond could see that Temari and the kunoichi on Lee's team shared similar thoughts.

The match was deteriorating into a full-blown catfight when Ino sliced off her long ponytail and threw her hair across the arena floor. At first, Naruto was tempted to assume – along with the rest of the spectators – that the girl had lost it, but the strangeness of the action and the thoughtful look on the old Hokage's face made him look a bit closer. With some clever manipulation of her chakra through the fallen strands of hair and the clan technique that Naruto had seen her use on one of the Sound ninja in the forest, Ino managed to take over the consciousness of Sakura and was primed to forfeit for her.

Naruto thought that this was a rather twisted interpretation of the rules for the match, since it wasn't really Sakura who wished to give up and her life was in no immediate danger. Sure she couldn't continue the match in her current state, but could the Yamanaka truly claim victory? From what he had deduced in the forest, Ino couldn't take action against Sakura in this state without suffering the consequences herself. What it really came down to, he supposed, was how long Ino could hold the jutsu against another ninja. If she could do it indefinitely then theoretically her opponent was captured and the fight was over. If, however, Ino could only hold the technique for a matter of minutes, then there was no guarantee that her target couldn't break free from the jutsu and defeat her before assistance could be found.

"You can do it, Sakura! Don't give up now! Even if you lose, I promise I'll train with you every day so that you can become stronger and defeat your eternal rival!"

Everyone's attention was drawn to Lee, who was leaning as far over the railing as his balance would allow and screaming at the pink haired girl below him, who looked up at him with a scowl on her face courtesy of Ino. Almost immediately Sakura's hands grabbed her head in agony and she fell to her knees. Something about Lee's outburst must have upset the Yamanaka's control of her jutsu. Shakily, both girls regained their feet before Sakura spun around to look at the balcony above her.

"No thanks, Lee. But thanks." She turned back to Ino, who was livid. "Time to finish this."

In the end, they knocked one another out to the relief of everyone. The match had dragged on for over fifteen minutes and was possibly the most boring fight any of them had ever seen outside of the academy.

It was probably for the best that they had both been eliminated. They were almost certainly the weakest two ninja to get this far in the exam, though Naruto didn't doubt their bravery or determination. He had seen them up close in the forest.

The fifth match, in Naruto's opinion, drew a perfect parallel when compared with the one that preceded it. Once again two kunoichi entered the arena, but instead of a drawn out slugfest, this match was mercifully quick and cruelly decisive. Not two minutes into the match, Temari of Suna had knocked out the Konoha kunoichi named Tenten and had her draped painfully over her battle fan. It might not have been so bad if the blond kunoichi hadn't decided it was a good idea to toss her unconscious opponent onto the arena floor littered with her own deadly weaponry.

Naruto thought that the treatment was a bit brutal and in poor taste, but Lee was livid and wasn't shy about making his feelings known. The green clad boy leapt down to the floor in time to catch his defenseless teammate before meeting the Suna kunoichi's vicious smirk with a wrathful stare of his own.

"Nice catch."

Lee settled Tenten onto the floor carefully before replying. "What are you doing? Is that how you treat someone who gave her all in battle?"

"Shut up. Take that loser and get out of here."

That was the last straw for Lee. He leapt forward in a spin kick, ignoring Neji's yell to stop, only to be blocked easily by Temari's battle fan.

Naruto looked to the reaction of Lee's sensei, but the man seemed to approve of his student's decision. Hinata fidgeted nearby in obvious worry over the fate of her idol.

Temari and Lee locked eyes for a moment before the kunoichi pushed the boy away with her fan. The fight looked about to escalate when the spandex wearing jounin jumped down and grabbed Lee firmly.

"That's enough, Lee."

"Get back up here, Temari. Don't waste your time on that fool and his guardian."

That knocked the smug grin off of the girl's face. She turned her head to face her brother and nodded in compliance. Before she could go, however, Lee's sensei spoke up.

"Before you go, I have one thing to tell you, ninja of the Sand." The tall man patted Lee on the shoulder affectionately. "This boy is strong. Don't underestimate him."

Temari turned away and leapt up to join her brother, who had his eyes riveted on Lee. After a brief moment, he turned to look at Naruto with an equally intense glare, only to find Naruto already staring back at him. Gaara's eyes were slightly mad in anticipation of his fight, and the blond could only give him a hard look back. He broke eye contact with the unhinged boy and glanced over his siblings. The two had shrunk back from their brother as his restlessness increased, all too wary of his mood swings. Both had been following Gaara's gaze to Naruto, but neither would look him in the eye.

So much for their posturing.

"Finally."

Naruto turned to find his two teammates in conversation.

"Wish me luck."

Kaoru gave Akira a cheeky grin before patting him on the back and shoving him towards the railing. "You don't need it."

Naruto grabbed the taller boy's arm, earning him a curious look from Akira. The blond was concentrating on the dark haired boy already standing down in the ring. Shikamaru was looking at Naruto as he walked to the center, and though his expression was nearly as bored as ever, his eyes were intense. Naruto paused for a moment in thought before releasing his grip on Akira's arm and giving it a light pat. "Good luck."

Shikamaru's nod was barely perceptible, but it was there.

The whole room watched closely as the first of the Ame ninja debuted his skills. Naruto was completely in the dark concerning Akira's abilities, so he too watched closely.

As soon as Hayate began the match, shuriken were flying. Akira used both hands to fling them nonstop at the Nara boy.

Naruto was intrigued. While most ninja threw kunai or shuriken in tight braces – usually three or four at a time – Akira threw only one at a time, alternating hands all the while. As a result the shuriken landed at odd intervals and in strange patterns. Akira often threw them across his body to further stagger their flight, and while they seemed completely random, Naruto could tell from experience that the boy knew just what he was doing.

Shikamaru dodged them as best he could while trying to fumble with the occasional shuriken of his own, but Akira wasn't letting him begin a proper offense. The Nara took the small bit of time he had to realize that he was being herded into a corner of the room from which he was unlikely to emerge at the current look of things. Try as he might, he couldn't break the constant onslaught of Akira's attack to escape and soon found himself not ten feet from corner of the large room.

By Naruto's count, Akira had already thrown twice as many shuriken as the average ninja carried in his holster. Considering that he seemed unfamiliar with Naruto's own storage seals, the blond guessed that he was nearly out of weaponry.

Sure enough, when Shikamaru had seemingly nowhere left to turn Akira drew a kunai in either hand and pounced forward to end the match.

That was his only mistake.

Five feet from Shikamaru he stopped dead in his tracks, his hands drawn back in preparation of lunging forward into the Konoha ninja.

"What?"

Shikamaru's hands were clasped together and he was sweating visibly. He had barely managed his seals before the Ame ninja was upon him. "Success."

Akira struggled futilely to move, his face screwed up in effort. "What is this? I can't move?"

"You copy me now." Shikamaru pulled his hands apart and opened one wide. Akira grunted as his hands moved forward from behind him where he'd been caught to match Shikamaru's position. The kunai grasped in his left hand fell free as his grip slackened.

Akira's eyes darted around furiously before coming to rest on the dark shadow stretching from where Shikamaru stood in the dim corner to his own feet. "That shadow?" He blinked in stupefaction for a moment before looking back to the Leaf ninja. "So you caught me. Now what?"

Shikamaru raised his fisted but empty right hand up near his throat. Akira could only scowl and watch as his own hand did the same.

Only his hand held a kunai that came to rest against his jugular vein.

"Give up."

The Ame ninja was silent for a moment as thoughts raced through his head. He studied Shikamaru intently before replying. "No."

The Leaf ninja sighed. "Don't think I'll do it, do you?"

"You won't."

Shikamaru stared back at him before sighing and dropping his arm. "Troublesome. You're right, I wouldn't kill someone in this silly exam."

"So?"

Shikamaru brought his hands together before him. Akira winced as his kunai dug into the pinky of his left hand at the second joint. "I have no problem taking your fingers."

Akira gave a wry grin, his teeth clenching together from the pain. "One by one, eh?"

Shikamaru nodded solemnly.

Blood dripped to the floor from the blade digging into Akira's digit. He gave a mirthless chuckle. "Just like that, huh?" His eyes swept up to Kaoru, who gave him a small, solemn nod. "Fine. Proctor, I give up."

"Winner, Nara Shikamaru."

The dark haired Konoha ninja spared Naruto one last glance before padding up to his teammates, who greeted him enthusiastically.

Akira stayed on the arena floor as the medical ninja healed the small cut on his hand right before their eyes. A moment later he was standing next to them with disappointment written across his face.

"It's alright Akira. That technique was fucked up." Kaoru patted him on the back comfortingly. "You had him the whole time and he pulled a miracle out of his ass."

The tall boy just shook his head. "I can't believe it's over, just like that. What will people back home think?"

"They'll think you did a good job." Naruto grabbed Akira's shoulders firmly. "You did do a good job. No one will hold it against you."

"And what if none of us make it to the finals?"

Naruto turned back to the arena as the next two ninja were called down. "You don't have to worry about that. Kaoru will make it out of sheer tenacity, I'm sure."

"You're an asshole, you know that?"

Naruto didn't turn around. "I know."

"The seventh match between Inuzuka Kiba and Sai will now… begin!"

"Haha! Prepare to be defeated by the great Kiba! There's no way we can lose here, right Akamaru?" The exuberant boy received an excited yip from his small dog as he stared down the pale boy across from him. "Don't worry, this'll be over in one hit."

The boy named Sai simply stared at him indifferently.

Kiba flashed few a short sequence of hand seals before going down on all fours. "Here we go!"

The Inuzuka rushed forward at impressive speeds, for a genin, but pulled up short as Sai expertly swung a ninja-to at his head. The pale boy had produced the weapon from a sheath resting on the small of his back almost instantly.

"You're very loud."

Kiba jumped back and stared at the other boy for a moment, trying to take in the flat statement.

"And you smell."

Naruto caught Sakura covering her eyes in consternation across the room. At first he had wondered if Sai had simply been trying to rile Kiba up, but maybe the boy really had absolutely no tact.

"That's it you pasty bastard! I'm gonna shred you!" Kiba turned to his small dog while pulling something out of his weapons pouch. "Come on Akamaru!" The boy threw something small to his dog before popping another into his own mouth.

Soldier pills. They increased metabolism and in turn accelerated the chakra production of whoever took them over the period of a few days. However, most high-level ninja and those on long assignments didn't take them due to the inevitable "chakra crash" that occurred after the drugs ran their course. For this tournament situation, however, they were almost perfect.

The little dog turned red. Now that was odd, but it would explain the name Akamaru.

"Come on boy, let's do this."

The small dog jumped onto Kiba's back and, with a bark, transformed into a feral version of the boy himself. On closer inspection, Naruto could see that Kiba had grown more feral as well to match his partner. Like Naruto, he now sported claws and long fangs as well as obviously slit eyes.

A moment later, they were charging forward across the stone floor towards the unflappable, socially retarded boy. But instead of moving to dodge the dog and ninja duo out of instinct, Sai did just what Naruto would have done.

He attacked.

The Kiba he leapt towards was forced to dodge away awkwardly as Sai's dagger-like ninja-to swept after him. Two seconds later, the second Kiba caught up to Sai from behind. Before he was set upon, the pale boy switched his blade to his left hand and reached around his back to the small scroll that rested just above the sheath of his ninja-to.

Naruto wasn't sure what the purpose of the scroll was, so he was understandably surprised when Sai expertly pulled a paintbrush from the middle of the bound scroll, and after half a second of fiddling, splashed black ink into the face of the Kiba approaching from behind.

Kiba balked, his hands reaching up to cover his splattered face and gave a pitiable sputter and whine. The ink was in his eyes, in his mouth, in his nose. It looked like torture for the poor boy.

Sai reversed direction immediately and, sparing no thought to the blinded Kiba's suffering, rammed the hilt of his ninja-to into his opponent's face. A torrent of red flowed from the boy's nose, intermingling with the dark ink as it flowed down the beastly boy's front. Kiba collapsed to the floor in a bloody heap before being obscured by a cloud of white smoke.

"Akamaru!" The real Kiba had stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide in shock at how quickly his partner had been dispatched.

But Sai wasn't done.

He swiftly put away his ninja-to and pulled his scroll from his back, unfurling it in one smooth motion. Before Kiba could recover and come to his dog's aid, Sai had scratched a strange picture of two odd, stylized tigers on the blank paper. With a simple hand seal, the tigers took life and leapt off of the paper to land on the hard floor – each four feet tall and as vicious as it had been drawn.

The two tigers moved apart and started to stalk Kiba, whose eyes could only dart between the in tigers and the beaten dog whimpering on the ground.

Then Sai kicked the dog.

Kiba screamed at Sai. Sakura screamed at Sai. The rest of the Leaf ninja looked affronted. Kakashi shook his head at his student's callousness. The Sand ninja were amused, if anything.

"Guess not all the Leaf ninja are as nice as they make out to be." Naruto turned to see Kaoru looking with interest at the fight below.

"Not squeamish about kicking a hurt puppy, eh?"

She looked at Naruto like he was crazy. "Not if it wins me the match, I'm not."

Sai drew his ninja-to once again. "I'm going to kill your dog."

"No!"

The pale boy didn't even spare Kiba a glance as he bent down to put an end to the animal.

"I give up!"

Sai stopped, stood up, sheathed his blade, and leapt back up to his sensei and teammate. Sakura slapped him upside the back of his head and began to rant against him. Kakashi just sighed.

What an interesting character.

Kiba hovered over Akamaru as the medics took the small dog away. Aside from a broken nose and some bruised ribs, the small animal was perfectly fine. The Inuzuka stopped following the medics at the doorway that led to the medical facilities. His gaze darted from the doctors carrying his partner away and his teammates – or more specifically the small girl on his team who had yet to fight. With one last glance of longing after his dog, he trudged up the stairs to his teammates and began talking in low tones to Hinata while shooting wary glances across the room.

He was right to worry about her. Naruto took quick stock of the remaining fighters. Two Hyuuga – members of an infamous clan possessing one of the world's most powerful bloodline limits – one spandex-wearing taijutsu dynamo who had yet to take off whatever weights he tromped around in day and night, who also apparently knew an advanced performance enhancement technique, and an up and coming bitch with a chip on her shoulder and something to prove to her pompous uncle.

Not to mention two of the most inherently dangerous beings on the continent.

And one of those was half insane.

"She looks like she wants to curl up and die." Akira was staring intently at the Hyuuga girl in puzzlement. "What could she possibly be so afraid of? She's supposed to be a ninja, and this is only a tournament."

A quick glance at the match-up board gave Naruto his answer, though not entirely. It was strange that they'd force two members of the same family to fight here, but he supposed it was in the interest of fairness to all of the examinees. That didn't explain Hinata's crippling fear, though.

Naruto picked up on the barely restrained bloodlust rolling off of Gaara as well. The Ichibi's jinchuuriki was staring at him with a mad look on his face. No doubt he couldn't wait to take another shot at killing Naruto. Apparently five years had hardened the boy's resolve.

He wouldn't worry about that now. Hyuuga Neji – Rock Lee's teammate – had a rather frightening look on his face as he stared down his family member.

"I never thought I'd be facing you, Lady Hinata."

"Brother Neji…"

The Leaf ninja on the opposite platform were chatting animatedly with one another over the revelation. There was obviously a story here that most spectators weren't privy to.

"Before we begin the fight, I have something to say, Lady Hinata." The girl was wilting under his glare. "You don't make a good shinobi. Forfeit now."

Naruto let out a long-suffering sigh. This was going to be boring. A monologue no doubt filled with the bitter angst he had been free of for most of his life. He'd gotten over his own self-pity a long time ago. He decided right then and there that he didn't like this Hyuuga Neji.

"You are too kind. You wish for harmony and avoid conflict. You agree with others, never resisting."

Hinata wouldn't meet his eyes. The match seemed to be won before it was even begun.

"And you have no confidence in yourself. I always feel your sense of inferiority. That's why I thought it would be best for you to remain a genin." The boy's eyes narrowed dangerously. "But the Chuunin Exam can only be taken as a team of three. You couldn't turn down your teammates' requests, and unwillingly entered. This is reality."

The poor girl was shaking nearly as badly as she had been in the forest in the face of Gaara's bloody workmanship.

"Am I wrong?"

The words cut her. "N…no. I…I just wanted… wanted to change myself. To do it myself."

Neji frowned. "Lady Hinata. As I thought, you are a spoiled brat of the main house. People cannot change themselves! Losers are losers, their personality and strength will not change."

Naruto pursed his lips behind his re-breather. He liked Neji less and less the more he heard.

"Because people cannot change, differences are born. Expressions like 'elite' and 'loser' are created. Looks, brains, ability, size, personality… all people judge and are judged in these values. Based on these unchangeable factors, people discriminate and are discriminated against, and they suffer within their own means. Just like the fact that I am from the branch house and you are from the main house cannot be changed."

"Bingo." Naruto mumbled quietly under his breath so that only his fellow Ame ninja could hear. "If he's from the branch house then he's enslaved through a paingiver seal array."

"And what's the purpose of that?"

Naruto turned to see his two teammates watching him closely. "Well, the line that that particular clan tows is that the seal prevents their enemies from plundering the secrets of their bloodline limit when a clan member dies. However, they use a paingiver seal that can be activated remotely by anyone keyed into the seal, which just so happen to be the members of main branch of the family. Furthermore, the main branch doesn't get a seal, so their bloodline limit is free for pillaging." The blond turned back to the arena below. "As you can tell, it's not an entirely honest or judicious practice."

"How do you know all of this?"

Naruto found Kaoru giving him an odd look when he turned once again to face her. "The one who taught me about the Hyuuga was a vindictive bastard who found the whole thing terribly amusing."

Kaoru nodded slowly, obviously intrigued by Naruto's obscure knowledge.

Down below, Neji was still going on. "I have seen through many things with this Byakugan, so I know. You are just acting strong. Deep inside you just want to run away from here."

Hinata struggled to reply convincingly. "N…no. I really…"

The veins around Neji's eyes bulged as his bloodline activated. "You can't fool my eyes."

Where before the girl had been shaking a bit, now she was literally cringing in the face of her cousin's words. He went on and on, analyzing each movement as he continued to tear her down.

Akira spoke quietly. "This is pathetic. The girl may as well surrender at this point, she's in no condition to fight."

"So basically, in reality, haven't you already realized?"

"You're right, I think I've heard enough of this crap." Naruto was far removed from the verbal abuse he'd been subjected to as a young child, but the fact that she just stood there without uttering a word in her defense was sickening.

"That you cannot change yourself…"

Naruto spoke up then, his voice carrying across the nearly silent room. "My, my, my, what a terrifying technique. No wonder the Hyuuga clan is so widely feared throughout the ninja world. I almost wanted to kill myself there just to end that tedious rambling."

Neji turned to face Naruto, his eyes narrowing further.

"Are you a ninja or were you planning on talking her into submission?" Naruto kept his tone light. "Actually, that was a bit obvious, wasn't it? I don't think you'll be getting promoted through your fantastic oratory skills though, so why don't you get this over with so we can get out of here, eh?"

Neji's voice was even as he replied. "I was doing her a kindness."

"You weren't." Naruto's playful tone was gone. "Belittling her in front of all these people? It's times like these I'm glad I don't have a family." Naruto turned and gave a pointed look over to the Sabaku siblings, earning a scowl from Temari and a confused expression from Kankuro. Gaara just gave him the same mad look that that he had been sporting over the last ten minutes, his tongue running back and forth over his teeth in anticipation.

Naruto leveled his stare on Neji once again. "Now get on with it."

The two Hyuugas turned to look at one another again, one trembling and the other seething.

"You can do it, Hinata!" Kiba was jumping up and down next to his perpetually composed teammate, who seemed a bit annoyed at the dog trainer's exuberance. Despite that, Shino offered a strong nod in the small girl's direction, which coming from him was probably the equivalent of a standing ovation.

Hinata let a small smile grace her face and straightened up, taking the unique taijutsu stance of the Hyuuga clan. Neji followed, and a moment later the match was underway.

Finally.

"Brother Neji, we fight."

"Fine."

Naruto watched the two Hyuuga dance gracefully around one another, their bloodline limits guiding them to the perfect targets within the other's body. Every movement was precise. Every strike was deadly. He found it odd that Hinata had been so timid when she was obviously very talented as a ninja. If he had to make a guess, Naruto would say that she was stronger than most of the examinees in the room.

But that didn't change the fact that she was losing here. Badly.

Naruto was no expert in the Hyuuga Jyuuken style, but even he could see that the two fighters were at different levels of ability. While Hinata attacked with the flat palm strikes characteristic of the style, Neji used a combination of open palms and fingertip jabs. The only reason he'd be attacking so precisely were if he were striking at his opponent's tenketsu points directly.

Very few Hyuuga ever reached that level of proficiency with their bloodline limit. Making out the individual tenketsu points was rare.

While Hinata appeared to be controlling the match, Naruto could see that Neji was surreptitiously landing precise strikes up and down her arms. No wonder she didn't know anything was wrong – he hadn't actually attacked her inner coils yet, instead only shutting down the chakra flow in her extremities.

Her strikes were becoming less and less effective, and she didn't even know it.

Then Neji struck her in the heart. The girl doubled over, coughing up blood onto her cousin's sleeve and the floor.

Naruto looked around the room to find most of the spectators stunned, including some of the jounin. Even old Sarutobi looked impressed as Neji pushed up the sleeve of Hinata's jacket and revealed the chakra burns over her now closed tenketsu.

Neji knocked her to the ground, through with the façade that the fight up until that point had been. "Lady Hinata, this is the difference in talent that can never change – the difference that separates an elite from a loser. This is the reality that cannot be changed. At the point you said that you didn't want to run, you were setting yourself up for regret. You should be overcome with desperation by now. Forfeit."

Hinata got up, however, to the shock of those watching. Naruto wanted to shake his head at the cheers of both Kiba and now Lee, as the girl was clearly beyond her limits. She had no chance of winning now. At this rate, she was on track to be seriously injured.

Moments later, the girl was on the floor again coughing up blood.

"You don't understand anything. From the beginning your attacks have done nothing."

Hinata didn't stay down, barely regaining her feet as blood dribbled down her front. "It's not over."

"Acting tough is useless. I can see that you can barely stand. From the time of your birth the responsibilities of the Hyuuga main house have been forced upon you. You have always hated yourself for your own weakness. But people cannot change. That is destiny." Neji's eyes hardened. "There is no need to suffer anymore. Let it go."

"That's not true, Brother Neji. Because I can see it. It's not me at all. The person lost and suffering within the destiny of the main and branch houses, is you."

Neji had a mad look in his blank eyes, making him seem even more strange and fearsome than before. Without regard to the others in the room, he charged at the crippled girl with murder on his mind.

The jounin didn't let him get far. As brilliant or powerful as Hyuuga Neji purported to be, he was still a genin. It showed in the face of the four adults who stopped him in his tracks.

"More special treatment for a member of the main family?"

Naruto snorted. The fool just wouldn't let it go.

Moments later Neji's sensei had pulled him away and exchanged hushed words with him while Hinata's had called over the medics and leveled the Hyuuga boy with a nasty glare.

"If you have enough time to be glaring at me, perhaps you should be helping her." The boy had no tact, mouthing off to a superior like that in front of his own sensei and the Hokage no less.

"And to the peanut gallery up there." Neji was looking at Naruto with a superior sneer. "If you're a real ninja, you'll stay out of business that doesn't concern you. No one cares if you want to act the knight in shining armor."

The blond's reaction drew the attention of the entire room.

He laughed. And he laughed. It was loud, boisterous, and filled with mirth.

And it made Neji furious.

Two minutes later, Naruto wiped a tear from his eye and grit his teeth as he gave the Hyuuga his attention once again. "Can I be honest, Hyuuga?"

The longhaired boy didn't respond, but kept an angry glare plastered on his face.

"I find you disgusting."

Neji's scowl grew even more severe.

"You're a pathetic hypocrite, debasing your cousin's skill while extolling your own with obscure, bullshit notions like 'fate' and 'destiny.' I wonder, has it ever occurred to you that by your own admission you too are destined to meet your match and lose? You call Hinata a spoiled brat but it's you who whines about ninja preventing you from murdering a family member and a comrade in front of your own Hokage." Naruto leaned over the railing, looking down at the fuming boy below him. "You aren't even the second strongest competitor in this tournament, Hyuuga Neji, and if you ever insinuate that I'm less of a shinobi than a pathetic, arrogant, piece of shit like you again, I'll cut out one of those eyes you're so damn proud of. Fate is about to catch up with you, Hyuuga." Naruto's gaze floated to the selector board, then over to Gaara, who was looking madder than ever. "Now get off the floor, real ninja have to fight."

Neji didn't respond. He leapt up to where Lee was standing on the raised catwalk and exchanged quick words with him, all the while ignoring the frown on Lee's face.

Naruto didn't miss the fact that the Hokage had hung on his every word.

"Kaoru, I need to talk to you."

The girl looked at Naruto and quirked an eyebrow. "Don't you have more important things to be worrying about?"

He put a hand on the girl's shoulder, which she looked at curiously before meeting his eyes. "No, I don't." Naruto let his eyes slide over her shoulder to the Sand delegation, where Gaara was staring at them hungrily. "Then again, I suppose it can wait until after this match."

The floor was clear and Gekkou Hayate had retaken the center of the arena. "We're ready for the ninth round to begin, so fighters, if you please."

"Think about how much you're willing to give up just for a promotion here, Kaoru. Is it worth risking your career?"

She blinked. "What are you talking about?"

Naruto sighed and gripped the railing. "Just think about it. I'll be back in a minute." He easily flipped over the railing to land lightly on the arena floor. Slowly, he padded to the center and the two figures waiting there for him.

"Yellow, Rock Lee, are you both ready to fight?"

Naruto nodded, as did the boy in green.

"Then please, begin."

Naruto didn't move, or even take a fighting stance. Instead he cocked his head to observe his opponent, who stood straight with one arm forward – palm facing skyward – and the other tucked behind him.

"I know you don't like long-winded speeches, but I'd like to apologize for my teammate's words. Sometimes he's a bit more callous than he intends."

Naruto gave a nod. "He should be ashamed for what he said, but I wouldn't say I'm against talking. In fact, I've been hoping to fight you since before the first exam."

"You were watching me fight Uchiha Sasuke, weren't you? Well, I can only hope we have a good fight ahead of us." Lee bent his knees in preparation of lunging forward until he saw Naruto's raised hand.

"Are you sure you want to fight me as you are? I take this seriously, after all."

Lee frowned for a moment before nodding. "Then I'll be giving this my all as well." With that he leapt forward.

Naruto watched the boy rush towards him at speeds that exceeded what most of the other genin could manage. Eight feet from where Naruto stood, Lee leapt off the ground and began a powerful roundhouse kick.

It was slow. Much too slow. The boy barely had time to react as Naruto pre-empted his attack and sent him sprawling across the arena floor.

"Lee!"

Naruto looked indifferently up to the railing to find the green clad jounin – Maito Gai, if his memory of the Bingo Book served him – clutching the railing, eyes wide in fear. The other jounin were also tense and watching intently along with the old Hokage. Kaoru and Akira were struggling to close their gaping maws. It was pretty funny, actually.

As he wiped the small bit of blood from his kunai onto his sleeve, Naruto watched Lee pick himself up off of the ground. The shaken boy felt at the shallow cut on his left side just over his kidney and drew his bloody fingers in front of him to look at in surprise.

"You're lucky this is just an examination. Out in the field you'd be bleeding to death right now." Naruto slipped the kunai back into his weapons pouch and frowned at the recovering boy. "I told you I was going to take this seriously, so I'd appreciate it if you gave me the same courtesy."

Lee looked confused for a moment before looking down at his feet. Then he looked up to Gai for guidance.

That pissed Naruto off. "Don't look at him!" Lee's head snapped around to stare at the blond. "You've been wearing those ever since this exam started, even in the Forest of Death where killing was allowed." His cerulean, beast-like eyes narrowed in intensity. "Do you even understand that those Sound ninja were planning to kill you? To kill your comrades? I wonder… just when is fighting at your full strength necessary, Rock Lee?"

Lee was at a loss for words. All he could do was look up at his sensei again, but the man was watching Naruto and made no motion.

"I'll make this very easy on you, Lee. Take off your weights and give me a proper fight, or I'll kill you. It's as simple as that."

The black haired boy stood still and contemplated Naruto's words before reaching down and sliding off his orange leg warmers, revealing weights with "guts" stenciled down the sides. Naruto's eyes widened slightly as Lee let the weights drop to the floor from knee height. Despite such a short fall, they still cracked the stone slab in a spider web of fractures.

"Happy?"

Naruto's re-breather hid his smile. "Excited, actually. Well, maybe happy too. A little."

Lee gave his own small grin. "In that case, here I come!"

With that he was off. Naruto was legitimately impressed. The boy was easily as fast as some of the jounin he'd fought over the years. Clearly he hadn't been neglecting his physical conditioning, even if he had fallen victim to the pitfalls of weight training that Pain had warned him of all those years ago. His attacks were woefully predictable.

Naruto stayed low to the ground as he dodged and danced around Lee's powerful kicks and punches. He didn't have time to spare taking in the reactions of the crowd, though he could guess that he and Lee were drawing surprised looks. Lee was a taijutsu prodigy on the same level as Hyuuga Neji himself. Perhaps his teammate was the one he had been hiding his true skills from?

Lee chased Naruto around the room for nearly two minutes, landing only light or glancing blows that were easily deflected and shrugged off by the blond ninja. Naruto was loving the experience. For once he wasn't fighting with his life on the line, and though Lee had a longer reach than he did, the difference wasn't nearly as great as Naruto was used to. Here he could get in close and experiment against the boy's attacks – dodging, twisting, and grappling to his heart's delight. He could tell that Lee was enjoying himself as well, though as time wore on the taller boy was slowly becoming more and more frustrated.

Finally, Lee jumped back and breathed deeply. Naruto straightened and cocked his head to the side in question.

"Why don't you fight back?"

The blond shrugged. "I was having a good time. Honestly, I want to see what else you can do. I did see you fight in the forest, after all."

Lee nodded slowly. "That technique is very dangerous."

"I'm well aware of how dangerous a ninja battle can be, but you won't win by dancing around me, fast as you are."

"Alright, Yellow. You've already shown me that you're a worthy opponent. It would be rude of me to hold back against you now."

"I don't take offense, since as you say, your techniques are rather risky." Lee's eyes widened a bit and Gai straightened on his perch above. "They're the real reason I wanted to fight you, after all. You can open some of the Celestial Gates, correct?"

A murmur rose up from the spectators at that pronouncement. Naruto noticed Kakashi giving Gai an angry glare before they broke into heated conversation.

"How do you know about that?"

"Well, the first hint was your sensei. He's notable for being able to use them in combat on top of being one of the world's foremost masters of taijutsu." The chatter had died down, and all eyes were on the heavily clad Ame ninja. "Then there's the fact that this is the third time I've seen you fight, and never once have you used even a simple ninjutsu. It makes me wonder if you don't have the chakra to throw around those sorts of techniques."

Another voice bit into the conversation. "And what does that have to do with anything?"

Naruto looked up to Sakura looking down at him from in front of Kakashi and Gai. "Well, as your sensei can probably tell you, the Celestial Gates normally regulate the amount of chakra a person can flow through his major pathways. By forcefully opening the pathways, a person can channel more chakra than normal and surpass the body's physical self-limitations. Obviously, the Gates are there for a reason, so forcing extra chakra through them is both difficult and dangerous. Furthermore, the more chakra a person has in his inner coil system, the more dangerous forcing it through the Gates becomes. For a jounin with even average chakra reserves, opening more than three Gates makes his chakra incredibly unstable and risks untimely death from being ripped apart by his own power. That's why the Gate manipulation techniques are more suited to those ninja who have small chakra reserves, who are, consequently, the same type of ninja that are likely to specialize in taijutsu."

Lee was nodding slowly, as was Gai from the walkway.

"So, how many Gates can you open?"

The green clad boy grinned wide. "No more than I need to." He dashed forward with blinding speed and planted his left hand and knee into the floor, before thrusting his right foot high into the air… right where Naruto's chin used to be.

Lee's eyes widened and his head turned as Naruto spoke from the floor right next to him, crouched low on all fours. "I've seen that move four times now, it won't work."

Lee closed his eyes in anticipation before Naruto's leg swept out and knocked him across the hard floor for a second time. He got to his feet quickly this time, only to find that Naruto too had stood up.

"You can show me what you can really do or you can give up. I understand if you're reluctant to use such a risky ability, but I've never fought an opponent who could open more than the first Gate in battle. If you're not going to try to win this bout, then I'll finish it quickly."

"Don't you think you're getting ahead of yourself? You've only hit me twice, after all."

Naruto crossed his fingers in a seal familiar to the high level ninja in the room. It didn't prevent their surprise, however, when a moment later a dozen Naruto's stood in a line facing Lee. "These are shadow clones. Each one is just as solid – just as real – as I am. Do what you need to do to win. Or don't. I'm finished being patient."

Lee didn't look to Gai this time. As the clones began to charge him, he closed his eyes and concentrated.

Then he was off. The clones tracked him expertly as his speed increased even beyond what Naruto was capable of. Lee's skin turned red and his veins bulged.

He was serious now.

The twelve Narutos split into groups of three and stood back to back with one another. They each drew a kunai in either hand and crouched down low, making as small a target as possible for the speeding Lee. "How many gates?"

"Five."

The first of the clones burst into smoke as Lee's knee broke its guard and pulverized its nose. His success was short-lived, however, due to the kunai that bit into his calf as he moved through the small group. One of the other two Narutos in the cluster had turned as its brother dispersed and slashed at Lee's trailing leg.

The spandex-wearing boy barely registered the dull pain – thanks to his release of the Gates – before he had to dodge madly as nearly two-dozen kunai tore through the air where he had just been. He'd avoided most of the damage, but still bore shallow slashes across his body where the kunai had nicked him.

He'd have to make this fast.

Lee jumped back into the fray immediately. The longer he held the gates open the more damage he'd suffer as a result. He continued to plunge through the groups of opponents, but couldn't avoid the follow-up damage. It was one thing to overwhelm a single opponent with his speed, but somehow with every clone that was eliminated the rest were able to hone in on his exact position and trajectory. Though he had avoided any serious blows, the small, repeated cuts were beginning to make him lightheaded and his vision fuzzy.

There was only one group of three remaining – he was sure – though they were difficult to make out through the cloud of smoke that had formed on account of the clones dispersing. One of them was his real opponent. He'd have to deal with all three at once. His body was breaking under the strain already.

Lee leapt into the fray with his favorite roundhouse kick, catching the first Naruto high in the head. Landing quickly, he drove his elbows into the backs of the two remaining figures, which both promptly vanished into more smoke.

All three were clones. He swung his head around frantically trying to find the real Naruto, but even through the thick smoke he could tell that he was utterly alone.

Lee didn't have time to catch his breath before an elbow caught him in the back of the neck from directly above. The force of the blow drove his head into the stone floor hard enough to crack the heavy tile. His head spun and he spat up blood from a busted lip.

The green clad boy couldn't stop his Gates from closing back up. He could barely prop himself up off of the floor.

"Great fight. That really was impressive, Lee, but if you're going to be using a technique like that you should learn to keep your eyes from flinching closed because of the pain. You missed me catching a great spot on the ceiling. I can make a clone pretty quickly these days."

Lee coughed up a bit more blood from his place on the floor. "I can't believe I lost after all that. I trained so hard."

"No doubt, but I wouldn't get too down if I were you. They have these little exams every few months, and you're a damn sight better than most of the genin in this competition."

A soft pat on the floor announced the arrival of another ninja even as Hayate walked over to call the match. "He's right, Lee. You showed everyone here how brightly your spirit burns. No one will doubt your talent now." Gai turned to face Naruto with a neutral expression written across his face. "You're very good."

"I've had to be." With that, Naruto rejoined his teammates, ignoring their amazed stares and the few pairs of eyes that still followed him from across the room. Now, hopefully, his words would carry some weight.

"H-how?"

"How did I get so good?" Naruto leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. "I've been a ninja for a long time. But that's not the issue right now. The problem, Kaoru, is that you're about to fight the most dangerous ninja in this tournament, and you're not going to win."

The girl's awed expression melted away almost instantly, morphing into an accusing glare. "How do you now what I'm capable of? I could…"

"Shut up and listen!" The blond softened his harsh look and continued. "I'm sure you're very strong, but Gaara shouldn't even be competing in this tournament. He's a mad killer, and no doubt he'll try to murder you as well if you get into the ring with him."

"I can take care of myself!"

"I'm telling you, you can't. You've never fought anyone like him before. Most of the jounin you know probably wouldn't be able to defeat him."

"How do you know all of this, Yellow?"

Naruto turned to Akira and let out a sigh. "I've fought him before. He has abilities unlike anything you've ever seen and no qualms about killing whatsoever. He already wiped out one of our comrades' teams in the forest."

The taller boy's eyes widened. "You're sure about this?"

"Yes."

"That doesn't matter! I came here to win and I'm not just going to throw in the towel like that. I'm going to fight."

Naruto was silent for nearly an entire minute before responding. "Gaara can control the sand that he keeps in the gourd he carries. If he captures you with it, he'll kill you regardless of what the proctor might say. You need to surrender before he has you. Understand?"

"Why do you seem so sure he'll catch me? I…"

Naruto grabbed her shoulders once again and shook her, maybe a little more strongly than he'd intended. "Do you understand?"

Kaoru nodded slowly.

"Your pride is worth nothing if you're dead. There will always be other chances to get promoted. Even your uncle would rather have you living with a loss under your belt than a corpse for a niece." Naruto released his grip and gave both of her arms an affectionate pat. "Now, good luck."

"Good luck, Kaoru."

"Thanks guys. I promise I'll give up before anything bad happens, alright?" With that, she jumped to the floor below just as Gaara appeared in a swirl of sand.

"The final round between Iwamoto Kaoru and Sabaku no Gaara. Begin!"

Kaoru leapt back immediately. Clearly she was taking Naruto's words to heart, though the insane gleam in the Sand ninja's eyes might have been warning enough to keep her distance.

Gaara stood still and observed her like a starving animal would eye a slab of meat. It was amazing to Naruto that he was able to hold back his attack so long.

The Ame kunoichi made the first move. Flashing through a series of hand seals she bent down to the ground and dug her slender fingers into the groove between the massive tiles of stone that made up the floor. With the aid of her chakra, the girl lifted the entire slab from the floor before spinning on her heal and hurling the rock square across the room at the still stationary Gaara like a massive discus. Like her uncle, she seemed to be a powerful earth user.

Gaara didn't even flinch as a torrent of sand rushed out of his gourd and swatted the projectile out of the air like a particularly annoying gnat. "Is that all?"

Kaoru frowned as Gaara's sand rose up and swept towards her like a wave. Naruto noticed that she moved well, but still struggled to keep away from the sand as it raced after her – cracking and crushing the stone tiles along the floor with every missed crash. As she moved, Kaoru threw shuriken and kunai at the stationary boy, but quickly found that even throwing from directly behind him couldn't penetrate his shield of sand – part of which was held back near his body to prevent her long-range attacks from landing instead of joining the vast majority in trying to crush her. A minute of this later, the formerly smooth floor surrounding Gaara was broken into smaller bits.

A small smile spread across Kaoru's face. Quickly flashing through a series of hand seals, she planted her feet firmly on the ground. It took a moment before her strategy became clear. The broken shards of the stone floor rose into the air all around Gaara. The boy responded by directing a death glare at the kunoichi before him.

The hundreds of stone shards of Kaoru's Tile Shuriken technique flew at the Sand jinchuuriki at incredible speeds from every direction, taking advantage of the fact that the boy had only a meager amount of sand nearby to defend with. Sensing the danger, the malicious wave of sand that was nearly upon Kaoru reversed direction towards its master to aid in his defense.

It was too late.

Gaara was pelted from all sides by the chunks of floor and was lost in the dust cloud kicked up by the crumbling tiles. Kaoru drew a kunai and moved in for the kill with a satisfied smirk on her face.

Until she stopped dead more than ten feet from her target. Sand wrapped around her feet and snaked up over her legs from the floor, rooting her to the spot. Kaoru was too shocked by the vision in front of her to react.

Gaara stood just as he had before, but now with his skin cracking and crumbling to the floor. Naruto had seen this before when they had fought nearly five years prior. It was the shell of sand the jinchuuriki kept over his skin in battle. He was still completely uninjured.

The sensation of sand creeping up and around her neck and arms brought Kaoru out of her stupor. She gasped and struggled to break free, but it was far too late. Her eyes darted around wildly, looking for a way to escape, before they came to rest on Naruto.

He gave her a meaningful nod.

"I…" Her announcement was cut off by a hacking cough followed by sputtering and spitting. Panic began to sink in as the sand began to cover her mouth.

Gaara wasn't going to let her surrender.

Naruto glanced around to see if anyone was planning on stepping in, but it seemed that everyone was either too caught up in the spectacle or content to keep watching. They probably didn't know that Gaara would kill her for the hell of it.

Kaoru's head whipped around wildly until it too was held still by the sand, her terrified eyes darting around trying to find anyone to help her. To save her.

Gaara was savoring the moment, all of his attention on his helpless prey. The Sand team knew to look away – only the jounin was still watching with uncertainty. He was probably wondering how bad the fallout from his student killing a defenseless opponent would be. The Konoha shinobi all seemed too stunned to act. All except for the Hokage, who was taking in the drama below with a bitter grimace plastered on his ancient face.

Naruto surreptitiously drew a kunai. Sarutobi's old eyes followed the small movement, as did Kakashi's. The others were too taken in to notice. Gaara had raised his arm towards the helpless Kaoru. Kiba and Shino were cringing slightly.

As he brought the kunai up to chest level, Naruto saw Kakashi tense, ready to spring into action. What he thought Naruto was planning to do, the boy couldn't be sure. The Hokage met Naruto's eyes but made no move to interfere.

Gaara grinned widely, oblivious to the drool leaking out of the corner of his mouth. His fingers twitched in anticipation.

Kaoru's eyes were pleading. At this rate, the poor girl was going to die.

Naruto flipped the kunai in his hand – gripping the blade tightly – and slammed the ring on the butt of the weapon into the metal handrail as hard as he could.

Gaara jumped nearly a foot before looking around frantically for the source of the ringing sound. So did everyone else.

Naruto slid the kunai back into his weapons pouch with two-dozen pairs of eyes on him. "I think we're done here."

His words knocked the spectators out of their stupor. The old Hokage caught his eye and gave a barely perceptible nod before pulling his red hat low over his eyes.

"Proctor! The match?"

Hayate stared up at Team Thirteen's sensei before blinking and turning back to the entombed Kaoru and the bewildered Gaara. "The winner is Gaara. You will release your opponent, now."

The Suna ninja stared at the barely conscious girl in front of him before reluctantly recalling his sand. Kaoru collapsed to the uneven floor and gasped for breath, hot tears pouring down her face. Akira and her sensei were beside her in an instant, offering comforting words to their distraught comrade.

Kaoru looked up at Naruto through her tears.

She would be alright.

"Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai, Gai. I'd like a word with your students before you retire for the day."

"Is that necessary, Lord Hokage?"

"It will only take a few minutes of your time, Kakashi."

"What is this about?"

"I need to know what interaction, if any, your students had with the Ame ninja known as Yellow."

"Clearly he's not a genin."

"You mean he isn't genin level, Kurenai. Neither are the Suna ninja, however, nor are some of the students of the jounin here. Unfortunately, I have no say in whom our allies enter into these exams. It seems as though Hanzou has sent this boy here to make a statement."

"I worry about Neji, Lord Hokage. Yellow doesn't seem to have any qualms about injuring him severely, and I don't believe that the boy will find his humility before he goes up against him in the finals. Before today, I would never have believed that someone in this exam could defeat Lee at full strength."

"Which is precisely why we need to gather as much information on this boy as possible, Gai. I'm afraid we only saw a glimpse of what Yellow is capable of."

* * *

**A/N:** Long chapter. I hope you enjoyed the fights. Most of them were one-sided, I know, but I didn't see the point in building the suspense for something like this when most of the outcomes were obvious from the start.

**Next Chapter:** Who Are You? by The Who


	11. Who Are You?

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Posted: **1/3/09

**Chapter Title: **_Who Are You?_ by The Who

* * *

_The Hokage must believe that you are Hanzou's apprentice. Draw Sarutobi's scrutiny, but not his ire. The more you distance yourself from Orochimaru and his schemes, the more successful you will be._

_I trust you to handle this task… delicately._

_

* * *

  
_

The sun had just retreated below the horizon in the Village Hidden in the Leaves, yet the sky was still alight with the brilliant pastel pinks and oranges left behind from the star's passage. The Third Hokage of Konohagakure took in the beautiful colors as he paced slowly through the large grove of trees that sat atop the Hokage Monument, trying to still the anticipation and slight trepidation that plagued his aging heart.

After an hour-long conversation with the best and brightest young genin in his village, Sarutobi had requested that his ANBU track the Ame ninja known as Yellow. Now, not twenty-four hours later, his men had informed him that the mysterious ninja had settled on top of the stone monument to watch the sunset.

He had left his guards behind despite their respectful requests to accompany him. They had detected at least a dozen shadow clones keeping watch from within the trees and were simply expressing their concerns for his safety – as loyal subordinates were wont to do. Sarutobi Hiruzen was the Hokage, though, and was quite capable of handling this matter himself.

To be truthful, he didn't want anyone else around to see this.

The old man could hear the light patter of feet in the trees above. His well-trained ears counted eight sets of footfalls just beyond his sight in the dark treetops – following – watching as he slowly moved forward to the top of the monument. There were almost certainly more keeping a close eye on the ANBU squad that he had left at the tree line.

For the most part, he ignored them. If the boy had been sent here to assassinate him, then there were about a dozen better ways to go about it that he could think of. Expecting the Hokage to approach him alone at sunset was a bit convoluted as far as plans go, after all.

As he cleared the trees where they abruptly ended not thirty feet from the monument cliff, he felt the breath catch in his throat and his slow shuffle jerk to a halt. Before him were three figures – one seated on the hard stone at the very edge of the cliff and the other two standing behind him on either side. They were looking back towards the forest that the old Hokage had just emerged from – acting as silent sentinels.

Sarutobi stared at the seated figure for a moment, his heart pounding in his chest. He had feared that he would never see that unique shade of golden hair within Konoha's walls ever again.

The clone on the seated figure's right disappeared in a puff of smoke, but neither the seated figure nor the one standing with its piercing blue eyes glued to Sarutobi's own moved an inch – aside from a long, wild mane of golden hair blowing gently in the evening breeze.

The old man had dreaded this day as much as he looked forward to it. What would he say to the boy who he was entrusted to protect by one of his dearest friends? What could he say to the boy he'd failed?

He let out his breath slowly and began pacing forward once again.

As the Hokage moved closer, he could make out the large re-breather, faceplate, and long bandanna that Yellow had worn the day before sitting in a pile next to him. He thought it strange that the boy needed such privacy to take them off, but the members of Kurenai's team had warned him that the Ame ninja looked a bit unusual.

That had worried Sarutobi, but he had come here to get answers and hopefully the mystery of Naruto's appearance would be one of them.

As he approached, the clone gave Sarutobi a nod and paced away along the cliff's edge to stand a good thirty feet from the two. The Hokage knew that it didn't matter a bit if one of the boy's own shadow clones listened in on the conversation, but subconsciously appreciated the semblance of privacy it gave.

Naruto gave no reaction as the Hokage stopped next to him.

"Do you mind if I join you?"

The blond continued looking out over the village of his youth – his face obscured from the Hokage's position by his wild mop of hair. "It's still your village, old man."

Sarutobi let a small smile stretch across his weathered face as he carefully sat on the cool stone next to the boy. He followed Naruto's lead and looked out over the village that had been his home for nearly seventy years. The Hokage rarely found time to come up to the monument any longer. Like so many others, it had become so commonplace a site that it rarely crossed his mind any longer. Only rarely did the nostalgia of his comrades' faces overcome him and inspire him to take in the monolithic visages from the roof of the Hokage Tower.

He liked this.

They sat there silently for minutes that stretched on and on. It wasn't until the bright colors of the sunset had nearly bled away completely that the old man broke the silence.

"When I was very young, my master, Senju Hashirama, used his bloodline limit to subdue and capture most of the tailed beasts. Even then – at the very birth of the modern shinobi world – he knew that the power that the bijuu possessed would be fought over for generations. All of the villages were young then, and instability and war were constant facts of life. Konoha was the largest and strongest of the new villages by a wide margin and was led by the strongest member of the strongest clan in the world. The First Hokage's bloodline limit and collection of the bijuu only further elevated his status and the village's as a whole. He feared that the other villages would band together to strike at Konoha if the village's power continued to grow, so he made a decision that I believe he came to view as the greatest mistake of his life. He gave the bijuu he'd captured to the other nations in an effort to ease their fears that Konoha was hording the demons' power to use in the wars."

Sarutobi turned to look at Naruto, but the boy was still staring towards the last vestiges of sunlight in the west. The old Hokage had never known Naruto to be capable of such stillness as a child, but he supposed that he really didn't know the boy at all any longer.

"I'd never seen Master as furious as he was when he learned that Suna had sealed the Ichibi into a child. Not even Uchiha Madara's betrayal caused him as much grief as that news did." Sarutobi thought he'd seen the boy tense slightly at the mention of the Uchiha, but shrugged it off. Perhaps Hanzou had told the boy of the infamous villain. "It wasn't the first jinchuuriki of course, but it shook him nonetheless. I honestly don't believe he'd even entertained the notion of using the tailed beasts in such a disgusting way, but sooner or later nearly all of the demons were trapped within human hosts. It was his greatest failing as a leader, and as a man. He could never condone such a fate for an innocent child, and until he died it ate him up inside. No Hokage has ever wanted that fate for one of his own."

Naruto shifted a bit at that. "I don't blame the Fourth for what he did. I'm proud of him, actually. I'm proud to have helped save this place, even if most of the people here didn't respect that."

The Hokage nodded slowly, pleased at the response. "And I'm proud that you feel that way, Naruto. He would have been proud of you too." The old man paused for a moment, drawing up the fortitude needed to say what needed to be said. "I'm sorry, Naruto. I'm so sorry for not looking after you better. I wanted you to have a chance at a normal life –free from the expectations and prejudices that people would hold towards you. I was foolish – so foolish. You suffered because of me and I am so sorry."

Sarutobi fought back the tears in his eyes as he awaited Naruto's response. He wouldn't be surprised if the boy left, or didn't respond, or even attacked him. One thing he didn't expect was what the boy said next.

"It's alright, old man. In a way, I'm happy that I was taken away from here. Now I'm strong. I learned a lot. I didn't have to deal with the prejudices of these villagers. My life hasn't been easy, but I think I've become better for everything I've been through. If I'd stayed here I don't know what would have happened to me, but I can bet I wouldn't be half the ninja I am now – for better or for worse."

The Hokage was relieved that Naruto had forgiven him, but his words had brought the real issue they faced to the forefront. "How strong are you now, Naruto?"

The boy chuckled a bit, but still didn't face him. "There are a couple of ninja in this village that I couldn't beat. Probably. But I can make so many clones that it'd be almost impossible to defeat me unless you caught a lucky break, even for a legendary ninja like you, old man."

"How many?"

"A few thousand. They're pretty useless for fighting at that point, but they're great distractions."

The Hokage's eyebrows rose spectacularly at that. The boy was practically an army in and of himself. That could be a serious problem, depending on the boy's intentions.

"Naruto, why are you and your team here? Why is Ame participating in the Chuunin Exams again, and why now? Why do you wear Hanzou's uniform – the one only his personal guard wears?"

Naruto nodded at the questions. "I sent my team back to Ame. I don't need them around here any longer."

"You're staying by yourself?"

The boy nodded. "My master thought that Ame needed to be seen again after so long. The other nations tend to forget that Rain is a legitimate force to be reckoned with, and in his mind that just won't do. It's the reason why I was sent to participate in this Chuunin Exam, when I really should be a jounin by now."

"Your master?"

"Do you need me to say it? It's the same man whose subordinate kidnapped me."

Sarutobi sighed. "You've been in Ame all this time?"

"Aside from a few missions outside of the country, yes."

The Hokage nodded in thought. "I was under the impression that Hanzou had locked his borders for a reason. What of this supposed civil war?"

"It's over, for the most part. Master is in complete control of the country with only a few clusters of rebel ninja remaining. He wants to keep the borders closed, though, so that they can't go for assistance from outside sources. Not now when he's so close to complete victory."

"Why are you here, specifically? To show off your power, or for a different reason?"

Naruto thought for a moment before answering. "I know about Orochimaru's plans for the tournament, if that's what you're worried about. My master likes to keep close tabs on all of his former acquaintances. He ordered me not to intervene on either side in the coming invasion."

The Hokage nodded. That answer alleviated a number of his worries, assuming… "How do I know you're being truthful?"

For the first time since the start of their conversation Naruto turned to face Sarutobi, eliciting a gasp from the old man. He had been warned that the blond had a unique look about him, but the long, thick whisker scars, slit and accentuated eyes, and sharp, deadly fangs painted a picture of a dangerous animal more than a thirteen-year-old boy. The seal that Minato had gone over with Jiraiya and him was not supposed to cause any effect like this.

"I need help."

Sarutobi could only stare on in concern at the boy he had once loved like a grandson.

"My master removed the blocks from my seal when I was six, causing Kyuubi's chakra to mix with my own much earlier than it should have. It's the reason I look like this now. The problem, though, is that the seal has been growing weaker over time. I know that the seal is supposed to _do_ something more than what it already is, but I don't have the knowledge to complete it or even repair the deterioration that's already been caused. I was hoping someone here could help me."

The Hokage nodded in understanding, but faced a new dilemma. He couldn't aid Naruto just to send him back to Ame. "Jiraiya might be able to help you. He did assist Minato is creating the seal, after all. But Naruto…"

He was cut off by the boy's quiet interjection. "I'll do anything you want, old man. I… I'm not going back there regardless. I don't think I could live like that any longer."

Sarutobi frowned. "What do you mean, Naruto?"

The blond looked at him meaningfully. "Lord Hanzou never really liked me… never cared for me. To him, I was just an interesting specimen. These past few years I've been running around killing people who oppose my master. I'm just a glorified assassin – a tool to his ambition. It's not the life I want. I'll do my duty here in the exam, but that's it. I won't be going back. Maybe he'll just let me go. He doesn't have much time to spare on me any longer, anyways. Maybe he won't care."

"What are you saying, Naruto? You want to become a Konoha ninja?"

The boy shook his head, causing his wild hair to sway back and forth behind him. "I don't think there'd be a point in that. If they didn't hate me for the Kyuubi they'd certainly hate me for being a former Ame ninja. Do you really think they'd ever trust me? I'd end up a genin with a squad of ANBU breathing down my neck for the rest of my life. But I heard that Jiraiya took apprentices, and maybe if not him, then someone else would take me on. I can help without being an official ninja here, can't I?"

Sarutobi sighed. This was good news, but would no doubt cause him a headache down the road. Naruto made good points concerning what he could expect if he joined the village. Most people looked down on defecting ninja, and adding that to the Kyuubi stigma the boy already carried would only further harm his standing in the village. He wanted to help Naruto, but really this was out of his hands. He'd need to convince Jiraiya himself.

"I can take care of Gaara for you, if you still don't trust me."

The Hokage refocused on Naruto at that. "In what way?"

Naruto looked back out over the village – now a sea of yellow lights below them. "I've fought him before. When Orochimaru makes his move, I can neutralize him."

Sarutobi quirked an eyebrow at that. "When was this?"

"I was only eight, but my master thought it might be worthwhile to make overtures with some of the other jinchuuriki my age. I made contact with Gaara in Suna and Nii Yugito in Kumo, but…"

"Killer Bee drove you off and Gaara wasn't particularly forthcoming?"

For the first time since arriving in Konoha, Naruto was taken by surprise. His face must have shown it too, because the old Hokage just smiled and continued on.

"Jiraiya's spy network is particularly good. We heard that a young man who gave his name as Naruto fought the Raikage's brother some years ago in Kumo. As far as Gaara is concerned, we have a number of reports that the boy is unstable and dangerous. It was a difficult decision to let him participate in these exams, especially knowing that Orochimaru was planning something." The old man's face tightened briefly. "You believe that Gaara is aligned with Orochimaru?"

Naruto shook his head. "I can't say anything definitively, but even without Orochimaru's meddling there's a fair chance that Gaara might unleash the Ichibi in the village."

"You are sure that you can deal with Gaara's full strength?"

The boy nodded. "I do have a few tricks up my sleeves, after all."

Sarutobi looked at Naruto thoughtfully, then nodded. "Why does that not surprise me?" His eyes looked over the blond's form slowly, taking in every detail, before speaking again. "Very well. You'll have to seek out Jiraiya on your own if you're to convince him to take you on. He's been tracking Orochimaru recently, so there's a distinct chance he'll be in town soon. I'd suggest looking for him at the hot springs."

Naruto looked puzzled at that remark, but shrugged it off a moment later. He leaned back until he was laying on the hard rock before cocking his head and looking at Sarutobi. "Now tell me about my father, old man."

* * *

Naruto finished his exercise routine the next morning and began walking leisurely back through town towards the hot springs. He had originally thought that the old man's suggestion was a bit strange, but figured that it was the only kernel of information he had that could point him in the direction of the elusive Sannin. The only problem was that he couldn't very well go into the hot springs looking like he did without drawing a good deal of unwanted attention. At best he could poke his head in and look around a bit before moving on or staking out the place for the next month in the hopes of stumbling across the fabled Toad Sage.

He was not looking forward to it at any rate.

"This is easy sensei. What else do we have to work on?"

The familiar voice drew Naruto's attention to the small canal running alongside the street just outside of the springs where a pink-haired kunoichi stood atop the blistering water looking expectantly at an older Konoha ninja wearing dark sunglasses and a navy blue bandanna that matched his shirt and pants. He stopped for a moment in mild interest as their training session went on. Apparently Sakura had been stuck with a tutor while Kakashi was off doing something or other with one or both of the two students who'd made it to the finals of the Exam.

The one-on-one training probably wasn't a bad deal for the girl.

"Your chakra control is high, but your stamina is pitifully weak. Therefore, you're going to be running up and down this canal until you've exhausted your stamina. Your chakra is like a muscle and must be trained as such, Sakura. This training is about endurance."

She looked a bit put out at the man's assertion, but dutifully began jogging along the water's surface. Naruto shrugged and took off to run alongside her, staying on the concrete path that ran along the canal.

"Hey there, Sakura!"

The girl looked up – eyes widening slightly as she took in his covered face – before turning her attention back to the water in front of her. "Hello, Yellow. Can I help you?"

"Not so much, unless you've seen a large middle-aged gentleman with white hair lurking around here." Seeing her shake her head, he continued. "So where's the rest of your team?"

"I'm not sure where Sai is, but Sasuke is training with Kakashi-sensei." Starting, she pulled up short and covered her mouth with her hands, a look of horror in her eyes.

Naruto waved her off. "Relax, I wasn't going to spy on them or anything. Just curious as to what they might be learning."

The girl narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she continued her jog, this time going back towards her instructor. "That's exactly why I shouldn't have told you what I did."

"Eh, I'm not too worried about those two. I have to get through the Hyuuga first. Sai has who, the puppeteer, right? And Sasuke gets Gaara. I think we all have other things on our minds for now."

Sakura gave him an odd look out of the corner of her eye. "You didn't seem too worried about Neji the other day, even after what he did to poor Hinata. I heard she's going to be in the hospital for the next two weeks."

Naruto just waved her off. "I'll manage."

"Excuse me!"

The blond's attention was brought to the blue clad man standing before them on a bridge overlooking the canal. "Can I help you?"

The man frowned and looked down at Naruto with a superior expression. "I would appreciate it if you didn't attempt to sabotage my student's training. And Sakura, you should know better than to collaborate with foreign ninja. Who knows what he's plotting."

Naruto frowned at the self-important man for a moment, but shrugged and continued walking towards bathhouses only a block away while speaking quietly to himself. "Who knows?" Turning around, he spared Sakura a wave over his shoulder. "Good luck with your training."

She gave him a small wave back, clearly chastised by her instructor but unwilling to ignore him nonetheless.

It didn't really matter, so long as she didn't think too poorly of him. The more the Konoha genin warmed up to him, the more their sensei and the Hokage would welcome him here. He needed their good graces. That was a certainty.

Naruto reached the entrance to the bathhouses without incident, but found himself at an impasse as to what to do next. The Hokage had told him to search for Jiraiya here, but simply waiting for the man to show up didn't seem all too great of a plan to the blond. He wasn't even sure if the Sannin would show himself until the end of the month when the exam was set to occur.

He was reluctant to use shadow clones to search, seeing as having so many copies of himself running around town could easily be seen as a security risk by the resident ANBU. He could create a small number of them and transform them to look like civilians, but if one of _those_ was caught he could expect to have the whole city up in arms at the apparent infiltration attempt. He didn't want to repay the Hokage's easy acceptance of him by ruffling feathers on his first full day in town.

Naruto decided to start with the obvious choice – go into the bathhouse himself and take a look around. Five minutes later he emerged, sweating uncontrollably through his confining outfit and no small bit perturbed. There was a reason why most people took off their clothes when entering the springs. Even though he had only paced around the edge of the warm pool within, the hot fumes had done their damage.

Now he needed to cool off.

He started walking around the bathhouse to air out his uniform a bit, when not halfway around he stumbled upon the very man he was looking for. It was almost surreal. He could even see Sakura running up and down the canal from here. Had the man been there the whole time?

Now he simply had to figure out the best way to approach the legendary ninja – who seemed to have his left eye pressed up against the wooden barrier that enclosed the hot springs. That was interesting.

He approached the man cautiously, a bit confused as to what the renowned spymaster was up to. It wasn't until Naruto was ten feet away that he realized the man was peering through a tiny knothole in the wooden partition.

What was he looking at?

Naruto carefully climbed the wall to peer over, curious as to what the man could be gleaning from his not-so-covert surveillance. The boy was still small enough not to upset the fairly flimsy wooden wall with his weight. A moment later, he found himself staring into the women's side of the bathhouse and ogling nearly a dozen naked females. It certainly wasn't what he had been expecting, and he was turning to tell the older man so when something stopped him.

Or rather, he stopped himself. The view wasn't that bad from here, after all. Sure he'd seen naked women in his time during his own surveillance and assassination missions – even killing one as she stepped out of the shower – but those were months or years ago. And they were missions. Naruto in his current state was battling hormones and the fact that he just didn't have a good reason to look away.

On the other hand, there were quite a number of busty, bouncy, curvy, and smooth reasons to keep looking. And looking.

"Can I help you, kid?" Naruto's head whipped around when he heard the older man address him from not ten feet away – his eye still stuck to the knothole in the wall.

"Would it upset you if I pulled you away from this for an important discussion?"

The man still didn't look at him, now jotting down notes on a small pad of paper as he crouched. "Yes."

Naruto turned back to the lurid sight before him, making sure to keep a low profile over the wall. There were probably some kunoichi in there, after all, if the toned bodies were anything to judge by. "Better give it fifteen minutes then."

Jiraiya simply grunted in response and went back to staring through his peephole.

Sadly, it wasn't three minutes later that a decidedly unwelcome scream interrupted their recreation. It sounded something like Sakura.

Naruto turned around only to find the girl floundering in the steamy canal and her instructor rushing towards Jiraiya. "I don't know who you are, but I will not forgive such shameless behavior!"

The white haired man spun around looking nothing short of annoyed and performed a quick series of seals that Naruto was all too familiar with. A moment later, Jiraiya sat atop an orange and blue toad the size of a four-door sedan. With a flick of its massive tongue, the shades-sporting instructor was unconscious on the cobblestone walkway and a sputtering Sakura was dragging herself out of the blistering water.

"Ready to have that talk now?"

Jiraiya gave him an appraising look before turning away. "Follow me."

* * *

Jiraiya had led him to the river just outside of town where Naruto had been doing his swimming every morning. It was just as good a place as any in his mind.

"So? What did you want, brat?"

"To speak to you, of course. I need your help."

Jiraiya quirked an eyebrow at Naruto's statement. "And what makes you think I want anything to do with you, boy? I have other things to busy myself with, I'll have you know."

Naruto cocked his head to the side. This wasn't exactly what he'd been expecting. "I heard you were a compassionate and selfless man who was willing to go out of his way to help those in need. The great Toad Sage… Jiraiya of the Sannin."

The older man snorted. "Sure, that sounds like me, kid. About thirty years ago. Just who have you been talking to?"

Naruto blinked. Then he looked down at the uniform he was wearing and back to the Sannin.

Jiraiya rolled his eyes. "Spit it out, brat. Are you telling me you heard that from Hanzou?"

"No, but others said…"

"Listen. I don't care what anyone else told you. I don't have any reason to help a Rain ninja, even if you _are _in good with the old Salamander." The man's voice trailed off for a moment. "Especially if you are." Looking back down at Naruto, he continued. "You'll have to come up with something better, brat. Much better." With that, he started to walk away.

This definitely wasn't going how he'd expected it to. Time for the bombshell, then. "I thought you'd be a bit more enthusiastic, considering I have it on good authority that you've been asking around for me for the better part of a decade."

That stopped the man in his tracks. Slowly, he spun on his heel to face Naruto, curiosity written across his face.

Naruto reached up and unhooked the re-breather from his mouth while at the same time pulling the faceplate and dark bandanna off of his head. He unceremoniously dropped them to the gravelly riverbank and met the older man's startled gaze.

Jiraiya closed his eyes for a good ten seconds and let out a deep breath before gesturing him over. "Naruto. Let me take a look at you." The man took in his every feature as the wild blond moved closer to him, his visage saddened at the sight of the boy. "What did that bastard do?"

Naruto chuckled lightly. "We got a bit impatient, I guess." At the man's gesture, Naruto undid the flak jacket he wore and peeled up the thin shirt underneath so that his stomach was visible. Without any prompting from Jiraiya, he pumped his chakra through the seal until it was easily distinguishable. He was a bit startled when Jiraiya bent over and started poking and prodding him without warning, but quickly got over the awkwardness of it.

After two minutes Jiraiya stood back up. "The seal seems to be functioning normally, though it's weakening faster than expected due to someone removing the blocks around it prematurely. I assume you've contacted the Kyuubi?"

Naruto nodded. "A right foul bastard, that one."

"Can you access his power?"

The blond responded with a frown. "I can call upon his chakra, but it slowly burns me even if only a bit is in use. It's the most corrosive thing I've ever come into contact with. I can maintain a one-tailed state without too much effort, but once I start drawing on more power than that I can't control it and it starts to overcome me until it stops at three tails. At that point my mind is cloudy and I'm overcome by rage. It's hard to hold back from attacking everything in sight."

"And at four tails?"

"I've never gotten that far. Frankly I don't want to know what would happen. The damage with only three tails active is great enough as it is, and my mind is nearly gone. That's no way to fight a battle, I've found."

Jiraiya nodded. "So what is it you want from me? To repair the seal?"

Naruto shook his head. "I want to become your apprentice."

The white haired man looked a bit shocked at that. "My apprentice? You are a Rain ninja, aren't you?"

"Not after the end of the month. I don't plan to return there anytime soon."

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed. "You wish to defect to Konoha? That's a very dangerous prospect, especially for one so young. And besides, how do you think you'll be received here, honestly?"

"I don't mean to join Konoha. I doubt they'd ever accept me. I want to go with you, like my father did. I want to learn more about being a ninja. I… I don't want to be just another tool any longer. Please, Jiraiya. I don't have anyone else to go to outside of Ame."

Jiraiya stared at Naruto silently for a time, before opening his mouth to speak. He closed it again in thought before continuing to appraise the young ninja before him.

"I'll need to speak with Sarutobi."

"I talked to him last night. He should…" Naruto stopped as Jiraiya raised a hand to cut him off.

"I will think about this. Meet me at the hot springs tomorrow at nine in the morning. Be on time. Until then, stay out of trouble, Naruto."

Naruto nodded and left. He could only hope for the best.

* * *

Jiraiya towered over Naruto as he sat on a large stone awaiting the man's verdict. If he were to be honest with himself, he'd have to say he was fairly nervous. Once again, he had doffed his headgear in the older ninja's presence to make conversation easier.

"Alright, I spoke with the old geezer and have come to a decision." He ignored Naruto's enthusiastic nod and began pacing before the young ninja. "I'll be honest with you, Naruto. I don't trust you." Jiraiya gave him a stern look that softened after a moment. "Having said that, I can't just leave you out in the cold. I have a responsibility as your godfather to protect you and teach you what I can."

Naruto hadn't known that Jiraiya had such a relationship with him. His shock must have been visible because the older man chuckled.

"You didn't think I was looking for you all that time to satisfy my own curiosity, now did you? I was worried about you. Hell, I was worried about leaving you in the village to begin with, but there's not a hell of a lot I could do with a young kid in tow. I have duties to Konoha as well, you know?"

Naruto gave a slight nod in response. This was a little much to take in all at once.

"Thankfully, it seems you pulled through mostly intact, and I've heard your skills are fairly impressive for someone your age. I'm going to spend the next month training you in one of your father's old techniques, and if I think you're being sincere in your wish to join on as an ally of Konoha, we'll go on from there. That's the best I can do for you."

Naruto grinned. He didn't plan to disappoint the man. "Thanks, Jiraiya."

The white haired man huffed. "That's Master Jiraiya to you, brat."

The blond rolled his eyes. "How about I just call you dirty old man?"

Jiraiya frowned. "With that kind of attitude, you'll be lucky if I ever let you sign my amazing toad contract." He paused for a moment in thought. "You don't have a problem with amphibians, do you?"

"No, they're great actually, but I find that they don't get along too well, if you know what I mean."

The Toad Sage apparently didn't know what he meant.

"I have the salamander contract. Cool, huh?"

Naruto almost laughed as the older man's eyes bugged out of his head in shock.

"You can summon Ajisuke?" At Naruto's smile and nod, he continued. "Do it now. I want to see that rotten bastard."

"He's not that bad, you know. And I really don't think that's a good idea. First, we're practically in Konoha right now. Second, he mentioned he wanted me to get you to summon the toad boss so that he could pay him back for some past squabble or something."

Jiraiya rested his chin on his palm in thought. "Good points. And I almost forgot that Bunta and your dad licked old Hanzou back in the Third War. Bet that still pisses the arrogant bastard off."

"Hey, what happened back then, exactly? No one wanted to tell me about it. Ajisuke told me never to ask him."

The white haired man gave a short laugh, but quickly quieted himself. "Well, it wasn't that funny, actually. Your dad was leading a group of injured soldiers back towards our lines from within Earth Country, but couldn't get around hostile forces without getting routed. He was the only one worth anything in a fight by that point, but had something like two dozen wounded with him. So he decided to cut into Rain Country as a detour around the Iwa lines.

"Trouble was, that was the first time that Hanzou had locked the borders of Ame. He didn't want anything to do with the Third War, and threatened to kill any ninja found breaking into his territory for any reason. As luck would have it, the old Salamander was running patrols himself and stumbled on Minato's group as they tried to duck through to River Country to the south. Hanzou picked a fight, but couldn't work around Minato's space/time ninjutsu. Eventually, Ajisuke talked him into pulling back before Minato got close enough to slit the old man's throat. At least that's the way Minato told it. Gamabunta still laughs about it from time to time."

"Huh." It was somewhat interesting, if not particularly spectacular. Shaking his head, Naruto got back to the matter at hand. "So this jutsu you're going to teach me?"

Jiraiya nodded before sticking his hand forward, palm up. "It's called the Rasengan, and it's one of Minato's original jutsu." Naruto watched closely as chakra gathered in the tall man's palm in a perfect sphere spinning every which way.

"Looks like pure shape manipulation to me."

The older man nodded. "Good eye. This is the most advanced shape manipulation ninjutsu ever created, and holds the difficulty ranking of A. You have any experience with shape manipulation?"

Naruto gave a small nod, his eyes still glued to the spinning ball. "Basic stuff, like for the Blade of Wind. Just concentrating chakra around my hand, really."

Jiraiya cut the jutsu off and allowed the ball to dissipate in the air. "That's better than nothing, and having a bit of elemental manipulation will help you down the line. You're wind natured, then?" Receiving another nod in response, Jiraiya reached into his pocket.

Naruto frowned when his hand reappeared with a rubber ball clasped in it. A water balloon, more specifically. "You're serious?"

The tall man huffed in indignation. "Listen up, runt. Your father took three years to create this ninjutsu. Then he came up with this training method and taught me how to do it in a month and a half. If you want to figure this all out on your own, be my guest. Otherwise, remember that _you_ asked _me_ for help."

The smaller ninja sighed. "Alright, what am I doing with this?"

"It's simple." Jiraiya grasped the ball in front of him in the same position as he had used when showing off the Rasengan. "Pop the balloon."

Naruto watched as the water within pressed awkwardly against the inside of the rubber membrane, causing it to bulge in every direction until the turbulence within was too great for it to withstand. With that, the older man produced another water balloon, tossed it to Naruto, and turned to leave.

"Where are you going?"

Jiraiya spun around and stared at Naruto incredulously. "What, you thought I was gonna hold your hand the whole time? I seriously doubt Hanzou taught you like that." He pointedly ignored the scowl Naruto gave him. "I'm going back to continue the research that you so rudely interrupted yesterday."

The blond furrowed his brows. "Peeping? You call that research?"

"Damn right I do. It's for the books I write." At that, the older man produced a gaudy colored book from a pocket and tossed it to a confused Naruto. "Now don't let me catch you slacking on your training because I gave that to you."

Naruto continued to stare at the book in bewilderment, not sure what to make of it. "So you're just going to leave?"

"No naked girls here to look at here, so yeah."

The blond blinked. "Would it make you feel better if I transformed into a naked girl for you?"

To his utter shock and horror, the older man seemed to think about. Seriously. "Yes."

Naruto could only stare as the older man watched him expectantly. "I was kidding."

"I wasn't." Jiraiya gave the younger ninja a few moments to change his mind, but eventually turned around and continued walking. "Come find me when you manage to pop that balloon. With raw chakra only. No slicey-slicey, if you get what I mean."

Naruto could only grumble to himself as the legendary sage left. Pain and Konan had said that Jiraiya was a _good_ teacher, so what the hell was this?

* * *

By the next day, Naruto had spun the water in the balloon in every conceivable direction to the point that it actually broke – which in some instances was damn hard. It hadn't taken him more than half an hour after Jiraiya left to come to the conclusion that spinning all of the water in one direction wasn't what Jiraiya had done, but that didn't stop him from trying. He'd even picked up a few dozen more balloons at a nearby market and put a handful of shadow clones to work playing with the spin in different ways. He felt a bit silly for scoffing at the water balloon right away when it was, in fact, the greatest tool to measure the effect of shape manipulation that he'd ever seen or heard of.

This was the perfect jutsu for Naruto. Though he knew a number of techniques that relied on seals to work, he loved the idea of learning such a powerful seal-less jutsu. He was always cognizant of others stealing his techniques – whether with a bloodline or without – and a jutsu like this that relied on the bodies own "chakra memory" and manipulation ability seemed perfect. Then again, his father had probably been cognizant of the problem of others stealing his signature jutsu when he first created it, being that he lived in a village full of Uchiha.

The day he'd spent playing with the water balloon had taught him a number of things. First, spinning in one direction at full power caused the balloon to flatten out and a wide disk of energy to form. It was something he'd keep in mind for later. Second, he learned that for whatever reason, he found it much easier to spin his chakra clockwise than he did counter-clockwise. Finally, the easiest way to pop the balloon was to spin his chakra in as many ways as possible, which was the entire point of the exercise.

When he finally turned up to show Jiraiya that he could pop the balloon with chakra alone a day later, the man simply handed him a thick rubber ball and told him to burst it. It was a bit infuriating, but he had already begun to see the method to the perverted sage's madness.

Naruto's project for the next month became gaining proficiency with shape manipulation, and he took it seriously.

When he wasn't reading Jiraiya's absurd book, of course.

Maybe the man wasn't as useless as he'd first seemed after all?

* * *

Two weeks later, Naruto realized he had a serious problem.

And the worst part was that it had nothing to do with being a ninja whatsoever.

The awful truth was that Jiraiya had somehow corrupted his mind to such a degree that he could hardly think of a member of the fairer sex without mentally undressing her – at the very least. He had tried putting down the book that Jiraiya had given him – which was nothing other than well-written smut – only to find that the damage had been done. He was irrevocably tainted.

So he went right back to reading "the book." Eventually "the book" turned into "the books" as soon as he told Jiraiya he'd finished reading the first – and that it had ruined him.

Some mornings he'd wake up early and, after his exercise routine, would sneak down to the bathhouses and stare over the wooden partition right alongside his new master before leaving to begin his daily training in earnest. Naruto had even begun putting up a simple D-ranked wind jutsu that blurred his outline by creating a mirage effect around him in order to avoid detection.

It had taken a few days of this before he'd gotten used to the perverted giggles Jiraiya gave off, but every once in a while he was sure the man let out a chuckle, and he wasn't sure it was directed at the girls.

The man had told Naruto to thank him.

It would have made the boy furious had it not been for the fact that he was legitimately enjoying himself and irrevocably addicted.

That wasn't to say that Naruto wasn't without his shame. Unlike Jiraiya, he went out of his way not to get caught and constantly berated himself for becoming a slave to his hormones. No one had ever accused Namikaze Naruto – the demon assassin of Ame and warden of the greatest of the infamous tailed beasts – of being a saint, but this was just ridiculous. Even for him.

No one had ever warned him he'd need psychological conditioning to deal with something as absurd as this. He cursed Pain. He cursed Konan. He cursed Jiraiya and his depraved books. He cursed himself and puberty. Looking at Jiraiya, though, made him think he might never grow out of this.

That was worrisome.

He'd even caught himself staring at Sakura as she continued her stamina training on the canal day after day. The girl was cute in her own way, even though she wasn't as developed as the other women his eyes latched on to. She was just so damn innocent, though. He felt like he was violating something pure every time he looked at her.

But he did it anyway.

The only remedy that he could find was in isolating himself at the river and working himself to exhaustion with his shape manipulation training. Sometimes he was distracted even there by the older civilian girls that came to swim in the pools along the river's bank.

So he'd take an hour break and enjoy their company from the bushes. At this point, he could only hope to avoid becoming another Hatake Kakashi. He'd spotted the man reading Jiraiya's books in broad daylight a number of times.

If it got that bad, he could always go ask Madara to kill him. God knows the man would do it with a smile on his face behind that shitty mask.

Honestly, who wears orange?

* * *

The month passed quickly, and between training and staring at the local female citizenry, Naruto decided that it had been fairly relaxing. Almost like a vacation. Three days before the final round of battles, he found himself eating lunch at none other than the famous Ichiraku Ramen stand. Not only did he love the fare and the company, but Ayame was the only woman under the age of forty that Naruto could look at without some level of lust – probably because she's the only female he could remember from his early childhood in the village.

"What'll it be, sir?"

Naruto didn't even glance at the menu as he ordered. "Two bowls of miso, thanks."

The chef nodded and turned around to start on the order without another word. Naruto was still a foreign ninja and was therefore treated with a small amount of suspicion, despite the courtesy that the chef showed all of his customers.

While waiting for the meal to arrive Naruto was pulled out of his thoughts as voices cut through the hanging cloth that separated the ramen bar from the busy roadway outside.

"You sure this is where you want to eat, Chouji?"

"Of course, Asuma-sensei! The ramen here is great."

Naruto tuned out the conversation as four figures entered the bar and took up places on the stools beside him. He spared an extra glance on the platinum haired girl in purple garments and white bandages wrapped around her legs. Did she wear anything under those?

"Oh, it's you." Naruto turned slightly to look at the dark haired boy before him – Shikamaru. The bored looking ninja took a seat next to Naruto – between the Ame ninja and the rest of his team.

Naruto nodded. "It's me."

"Why didn't you tell him?"

The blond boy could only stare at him in confusion. "Who and what are we talking about?"

Shikamaru frowned, but continued on. "Your teammate. Why didn't you tell him about my ability?"

Oh. He'd almost forgotten about that. "That wouldn't have been particularly fair, now would it?"

The other boy was still frowning. "He was your teammate and you still didn't help him. He would have beaten me if you'd said something."

"You sound angry about it. I thought you'd be thanking me."

"It's not right to betray your comrades like that."

Naruto let out a laugh at that. "Betray? Listen, I only met that guy a day before we showed up for the exam. An exam, by the way, that doesn't mean a damn thing in the grand scheme of things no matter what the jokers around here might tell you." He had the attention of Shikamaru's whole team by now – all of which were frowning at him. "I knew him just as well as I knew you. What point would there have been in propping him up to win that round if he would have just been beaten in the finals – in front of everyone no less?"

"You don't know that he would have lost there. You don't know that I'll win."

Naruto nodded. "You're right, but at least this way the better man advances and not the one with better teammates. You heard the rules – it was every man for himself from then on out."

The jounin sensei took his cigarette out of his mouth, eyes focused on Naruto. "I don't know how they do it in Ame, but here we back up our comrades – exam or no."

"Is that right? I didn't see any of your students cheering for Yoroi or Misumi when they were down in the arena. I got the impression that maybe they didn't know your team very well, but apparently that doesn't matter since they have the same symbol engraved on their forehead protectors as you do."

Shikamaru spoke again. "Do your comrades mean so little to you?"

"They weren't my comrades. My comrades are the men and women who sweat and bleed with me – not the people who live down the block." Naruto looked up as the chef returned with his two bowls of miso and gave the man a nod of appreciation.

Teuchi nodded back and left, not wanting to get in the way of his guests' heated conversation.

Naruto took off his re-breather and began to eat his noodles loudly, drawing yet another frown from Ino. He wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible. The Konoha team was giving him a headache. For the most part they ignored him as they gave their own orders down the bar, looking at him only to stare at his frightening face before looking away the second he met their eyes. In time he finished eating and attempted to tune out the mutterings of the team next to him – no doubt about him and in a less than flattering tone.

"You want to know what's wrong with your team, Shikamaru?" The boy looked at Naruto through narrowed eyes, but said nothing. The rest joined the dark haired boy in staring the Ame ninja down a moment later. Good. He had their attention. "You guys take this teamwork shit way too far. I've been in and around Konoha for the last month, and half the times I've seen you you're doing nothing but sitting on your ass staring off into space. I sometimes wonder if you even realize there's a tournament coming up."

Shikamaru's mouth was a hard line, Ino was gritting her teeth, and Chouji was turning red. The only one who didn't react was the jounin, though Naruto could tell he was listening intently. Apparently they didn't take criticism well. "Your teamwork is great, but individually, the three of you suck. Two of you can hardly finish a fight on your own, and the other is all brawn and no finesse or adaptability whatsoever. You obviously don't give a damn about individual achievement."

"Is that all?" Shikamaru was doing his best not to become visibly upset, but was struggling.

It was strange to Naruto that they'd become so defensive in the face of some hard truths, but he supposed that this went deeper than their team strategy. It went to their very ethos. He didn't give a shit. His father hadn't become a legend by waiting for his allies to bail him out of trouble. Most of the time _he'd _done the bailing.

"No. You're content to do the minimum amount of work so long as you have your buddies to back you up, but in case you haven't noticed, you chose the wrong profession if you're just content to get by. Someday that attitude will get you killed, and your comrades along with you. A proper ninja strives for individual excellence, not because teamwork isn't important, but because a team is strongest when every member is at their best. You might have a nice chain going for you, but right now, all three of you are weak links."

The scowls on the genin's faces had gone from angry to murderous, but the jounin simply continued to give Naruto a calculating stare. Maybe the man had seen some truth in his words.

The chef walked back out with Naruto's check, but froze in his tracks when he saw Naruto's uncovered face for the first time. Slowly he lowered the bill to the counter, never once looking away from the feral ninja.

Naruto didn't look at the slip of paper. He simply removed an impressive wad of cash from one of the pockets in his vest and set it on the counter. Leaning in, he spoke quietly to one of the only men to ever rise to his defense in the village of Konoha. "Do me a favor, old man. Take your tip and bet it all on Yellow in the first match of the exam finals. I'll be fighting Hyuuga Neji. You might want to consider dipping into your savings a bit too. I'm winning this one for ya."

The chef looked at the money stacked on the counter before looking back to the young teen, too shocked for words.

Naruto reattached his re-breather and turned to go. "Believe in me, old man. I'm a sure thing."

* * *

"Why the hell is it that we're in Fire Country again?"

That voice was normally obnoxious enough as it was, but when it was complaining? Insufferable. "You know as well as I do why we're here. Now I and the rest of the world not blessed enough to be deaf to your incessant carping would appreciate it if you kept your thoughts to yourself."

"You didn't answer my question."

The tall figure stopped in its tracks and turned to the shorter man in exasperation. He'd promised to try to be a bit more tolerant, but he couldn't be held responsible for his actions when every ignoramus he had the displeasure of working with simply begged him for death. "We're going to make an investment. Now be quiet, or I'll end you."

The second man looked as though he were about to respond, but thought better of it at the penultimate opportunity. The man before him _did_ have a reputation, after all.

The taller of the two continued walking, casually swaying the large duffel bag he held in his right hand back and forth as he walked. He'd just have to savor the few minutes he had before the idiot broke the silence again.

This is why he hated working with partners ever since he'd made jounin nearly a lifetime ago.

His companion surprised him though, waiting nearly seven minutes before breaking the silence yet again. How he desperately wanted to wring the bandanna-wearing idiot by his neck. That was another thing that pissed him off about his partner – his purple bandanna, and the hair held in place by it, simply defied explanation. The hair was a disgusting shade of pastel teal. Frankly, he couldn't understand how the man stayed a missing ninja with such an obvious telltale attribute.

"So what sort of investment are we making?"

The large man could only glare at his companion through eyes of forest green and deep crimson. "We're placing a wager on the upcoming Chuunin Exam finals in Konoha, for the third time."

"Oh, right, right. You were looking at the participants and odds the other day, weren't you? This'll be a good one, I'm sure. Itachi's little brother is in it after all, eh?"

"And the Ichibi's jinchuuriki." The idiot could be so absentminded at times. The tall man reached into his black cloak and produced the flier in question before handing it to his partner. It would save him some breath. And a migraine. Hopefully.

"So who're we betting on? There's the Uchiha, the Kazekage's kid, a Hyuuga… well those are the interesting ones. I'd say Uchiha Sasuke here. If he's anything like Itachi he should have this one in the bag."

"Luckily for us, you aren't the one making these decisions. I've already cleared our pick with the leader. We'll be betting on the first match only – Hyuuga Neji against Yellow."

The bright haired man straightened and gave a curious look at his masked partner. "The Hyuuga, Kakuzu? The payout for this match stinks. What's the damn point of betting on a sure thing?"

Kakuzu groaned. The nitwit needed everything explained to him. "We're betting on Yellow, fool. The odds are eleven to one against."

"Haha! You're kidding, right? How much money do you plan to throw away on this nobody?"

"Two hundred million ryu. And if you knew anything you'd know that the sure bet was this boy and not the Hyuuga."

The shorter man choked on the number. "You've got to be fucking kidding me, Kakuzu. Some random shinobi from Ame is going to win this match? Says who? He's a huge underdog here. The Hyuuga brat is supposed to be some kind of prodigy. Why don't we just bet on a later match?"

"Because this so-called Yellow is the strongest fighter in the tournament, and you know as well as I do that Orochimaru will likely interrupt the later matches. We have no guarantee of those bets being paid." Kakuzu switched the duffel bag to his left hand and continued walking. "As to why Yellow will win, there are a number of reasons. My sources tell me that he wears the armor of Salamander Hanzou's own guard and that he defeated a student of Maito Gai in the preliminary round of the finals who opened five of the Celestial Gates in their bout."

The shorter man whistled. "Five gates, huh? That's pretty nutty for a genin. And you think he was taught by Hanzou? That guy's supposed to be tough, eh?"

Kakuzu halted once again. He honestly couldn't believe that this idiot was still alive with such a blasé outlook. "Have you ever been to Rain Country?"

The other man stood in thought for a moment before shaking his head.

"I strongly suggest you don't visit. Salamander Hanzou makes sport of hunting S-ranked ninja who stumble into his country."

Once again, the shorter man laughed. "You tell it like he's some spook story meant to frighten little kids. I can take care of myself, thanks. You ever meet this guy?"

Kakuzu regretted telling this moron to avoid Ame. Let the little bastard die like the rest. "I met him once when he was still very young."

"Ha. Sometimes I forget how fucking old you really are, Kakuzu. So this kid is good, you think? Just 'cause he might be Hanzou's student and beat a brat who burned himself out with the Gates?"

"No. He'll win because he's the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki, and this will be his introduction to the world."

The teal haired man just stared at Kakuzu for moment, a small smile stretching across his face. "Well shit, old man. All you had to do was say so. Itachi'll be happy, at least. Think he'll give us a smile?"

Kakuzu kept walking towards the now visible gates at the entrance to Otafuku Gai – the gambling capital of Fire Country. "I honestly couldn't care less."

* * *

**A/N:** And here we have another deviation in Naruto's character from canon. Yes, he's going to be a damn sight more perverted in this, but I don't intend to make a cheap comedy act out of it.

I've had the poor kid living like a monk for pretty much his whole life. Right now he's a bit thrown off by these occurrences, but he's a thirteen year old kid who is experiencing new things for the first time. He's also a good deal more mentally and emotionally mature than canon Naruto, so I don't think it's too crazy for him to start thinking about his sexuality. He's not a limp fish.

Not to mention, even canon Naruto doesn't shy away from exploring the issue. He was the great creator of the Sexy jutsu, after all. In this rendition he'll just be a bit more open to his nature instead of sputtering like a fool all the time.

My Naruto is _not_ a fool.

**Next Chapter:** _Dirty Laundry_ by Don Henley


	12. Dirty Laundry

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Posted: **1/15/09

**A/N:** Back for another round we are.

First things first. I got a large number of reviews that enjoyed the Kakuzu/Hidan scene in the story. That's all well and good, except for one problem:

That wasn't Hidan.

It was the nameless fodder member that acts as Kakuzu's partner up to the time skip. He's only in one scene – the Akatsuki cave meeting in chapter 238 of the manga, and has the lines, "fufu… all of us meeting together like this" and "Itachi… your brother…"

Kakuzu kills him over the time skip.

I'd like to mention that, due to many reviewers' questions concerning Hanzou, I've written a short one-shot concerning his life entitled _The Unforgiven_.

Hopefully, it answers more questions than it raises. It addresses a few elements concerning the history of the Naruto world as I see it – especially concerning Rain Country – and I would encourage anyone following this story to read it.

**Chapter Title:** _Dirty Laundry _by Don Henley

* * *

_You must quash their doubts._

_Ame is strong. Hanzou is strong._

_All is right with their infantile farce of a reality._

_Make them believe._

_

* * *

  
_

Tsunade of the Legendary Sannin was exiting a high stakes gambling house with her almost-niece in Otafuku Gai. She had grown tired of the slots and decided that she'd try her hand at picking a winner in Konoha's current Chuunin Exam finals – which had actually already begun.

Luckily for her and her sleep-'til-lunch philosophy, the results of the examination wouldn't reach the city until late that evening by ninja courier – and not the shitty mail ones. No, these were jounin who were hired to carry the sensitive results quickly and without incident – an A-rank assignment – by the large gambling houses that ran the betting pools.

It was big business, after all.

So they allowed betting until two in the afternoon.

It was a good thing that she had waited so long, too, because the odds on the Ame ninja in the tournament had gotten even longer – now at thirteen to one against.

She had a good feeling about this one. Better than the bad taste in her mouth she got from the mere sight of the Hyuuga or Uchiha names, anyways. Those two clans were far too full of themselves for their own good. It was no surprise to her that someone had wiped out one of them. The only surprise had been that it was one of the Uchiha's own that had done the deed.

She had to think that the old salamander from Ame had sent someone good. He had close to a decade of young genin to choose from if he so desired, and the man was well known for his grandstanding. The blonde had heard that the old bastard had declined to visit Fire Country to support his subordinate – which was expected. He didn't like to leave Ame.

Rather, he preferred to lure his enemies _in._

It was a bitter thought, and she managed to put it out of mind as she emerged into the noon sunlight from indoors.

That is until she scanned the busy thoroughfare and spotted another pair of unnatural eyes that looked so similar to _his_, if not in color.

The tall figure wore a black cloak and cut a wide swath through the crowd – all of whom seemed eager to get out of his way. Behind him trailed a similarly dressed figure that followed the larger man like a lost puppy. It was an odd sight, to be sure.

And then those inhuman eyes found hers, and the man stopped. Just like Hanzou, this man's face and head were almost entirely covered – in this case by a mask and hood – the only distinguishing feature being a slashed-through Taki forehead protector.

Now _that_ was either a proud battle scar, or a bold statement.

She never saw it actually happen, but somehow a thick black book found its way into his hand. It was a Bingo Book, she knew – but not just any book. It was a large version – the sort used by hunter ninja. It had extra space alongside each profile in which to jot down updated information and personal notes on targets.

And that was a bad, bad thing.

Shizune had noticed too – as attuned as she was to her mentor's quirks – and shifted into a defensive stance.

The man with hideous teal hair seemed oblivious, but had surreptitiously moved a few steps away from his partner in anticipation of a fight. The furtive glances he sent the larger man made her think that he didn't quite know what was going on.

The man with strange eyes hadn't stopped staring at her, even though the book in his hand was open and the pages were turning at incredible speed.

She didn't know how he could have managed that, given that the hand that held the book remained perfectly still. Perhaps it was some mechanism up his sleeve?

Finally the pages stopped and the tall man glanced down at the open book, only to narrow his eyes in annoyance. He turned another page. A moment later he met her gaze once again. "Greetings, Lady Tsunade. What a strange coincidence it is that we stumbled across you here. Could you be betting on the tournament in Konoha, I wonder?"

The man's voice was deep and rather ominous. She didn't like it. "Have we met?"

He didn't respond for a time, but continued to meet her hostile glare. "No, Lady Tsunade, but I was once… acquainted with your grandfather."

How old was this guy? She eyed the hunter's book in his open palm. "Do we have business?"

The book snapped shut and disappeared into the dark cloak nearly as quickly as it had appeared.

"No. Most of the hidden villages have rescinded your bounty since you've gone so long without associating with the Leaf. The bookies you steal from, on the other hand, would rather see you alive than dead, but won't put forth the money required to see it so. There is only one bounty on your head at the moment, as a matter of fact."

Tsunade's eyebrow rose. She actually hadn't known that, and was torn between relief and disappointment at having been written off by so many. "What's my bounty at, then?"

"Answer me this and I will answer in turn: Who did you bet on?"

"The Ame boy."

The man nodded. "Your bounty is set by Akasuna no Chiyo, for fifty."

The Legendary Sannin snorted. "Fifty million? What a joke. Looks like that old hag has finally lost her mind."

"You made a good selection for the tournament, Lady Tsunade. Yellow will win." He gave his partner a glance and turned to leave.

Tsunade felt a sense of foreboding at the man's words. She'd meant to throw her money away betting on a long shot, but if the man knew something that she didn't and was right, she'd make a fortune.

And that never boded well for the Sannin.

Once again that deep, gravelly voice brought her out of her thoughts. "You seem to have misunderstood me, however. The bounty on your head…"

"…is fifty ryo."

Then she blinked as his last words sank in.

"Fifty fucking ryo?"

* * *

"You look like you have something to say."

Naruto cocked his head to the side and stared across the dusty arena floor at the longhaired boy opposite him. "To you? No."

"Well I have something to say to you. Throwing about idle threats is the mark of a coward and a weakling. I can't say I'm surprised to hear them from a foreign ninja, though."

Naruto stared at the boy impassively. "And what makes you think I didn't mean what I said?"

"You must be incredibly arrogant then, to think you can get away with threatening me like that. Like most foreigners, you believe that you can walk all over the Leaf, don't you? Well I beg to differ."

The blond stood in a relaxed pose, bleeding boredom and indifference. If he knew anything about ninja like Hyuuga Neji, he knew that their pride was their greatest weakness. Normally he wouldn't care to hold a conversation with the boy, but this was different from a normal battle and letting Neji run his mouth might succeed in adding to the spectacle.

It was a spectacle, after all. Naruto was on display for the first time in his life. He wanted – no – he _needed_ to make a lasting impression.

"I'll go out on a limb here and guess that you lost someone close to you to foreign shinobi. But really, who hasn't? You live in a ninja village. You're from a ninja clan. And since I doubt that any of the spectators here care about your personal woes any more than I do, maybe we should start?"

The crowd murmured in agreement. That surprised Naruto quite a bit, seeing as he was considered an underdog in this bout and an outsider to boot, but there were plenty of ninja – and enough foreigners, he supposed – in attendance that agreed with his sentiments.

This was a tournament, not a talk show.

"I'll only say this once, because frankly I don't give a damn about you. Give up. Fate made its choice when you drew me as your opponent. You can't win against me. Give up now, and I'll spare you the agony of defeat. I may kill you otherwise, foreigner."

Naruto's eyes hardened as the Hyuuga spoke. "You're coming dangerously close to insulting me again. I'd hoped that maybe I'd earned a bit of respect when I defeated your teammate, but apparently you choose only to see that which supports your childish worldview. I seriously doubt that you are in any way superior to him."

That was enough to set Neji off. The boy rushed at Naruto with speed that would rival most seasoned chuunin, but that wasn't what the blond needed to worry about. He knew that the Hyuuga could never match his teammate in a flat sprint. The boy was dangerous in close combat, though – his arm speed being much greater than a ninja of his age and experience should possess thanks to the excellent internal chakra control gifted by the Byakugan.

Naruto made a clone as the boy approached. The doppelganger wasted no time and attacked with a straight kick at the charging Neji. It would be interesting to see what the boy did.

The clone was faster than Neji was, but the attack was obvious. The Hyuuga parried the blow with his forearms and grunted under the impact. Yes, Naruto hit hard.

Neji had a problem here. If anything, his attack speed in close combat was only marginally superior to Naruto's. The blond hit much harder, though – the same or better than an un-weighted Lee. The Hyuuga prodigy couldn't simply block with one arm or his hands. He'd risk having them broken like that. But if he couldn't use his hands to stop the clones, then he couldn't dispel them using his Jyuuken style.

It was a problem, but he could work around it.

He spun away from the first clone just as a second doppelganger attacked from the side. That fist would have hit Neji's kidney if he hadn't moved. These clones were very good at working in tandem, he knew, and were it not for his Byakugan they would tear him apart.

As it was, he was having a rough time just avoiding their staggered attacks – especially when a third clone joined the fray.

The original Ame ninja simply stood back and watched.

The sounds of the quick and deadly taijutsu match were drowned out by the dull roar of the crowd as the four figures battled across the center of the arena – none able to land a solid hit. The fight was entertaining at the least, but the roars of the crowd in support of the Hyuuga began to grate on Naruto's nerves after a time.

He remained patient, though. As a jinchuuriki, he would probably be able to shrug off all but the strongest of the dark haired boy's strikes thanks to his enhanced chakra circulatory system, but he would rather be safe by taking this time to observe than to end up dead later.

A powerful enough strike to his head or heart might actually be able to kill him.

Neji finally saw an opening in the guard of one of the clones attacking him. The one directly behind him had draw back in anticipation of sending a powerful haymaker at the back of his head – leaving his torso unguarded.

The Hyuuga boy had done his research over the month break. He knew how the Shadow Clone jutsu worked – that it split chakra between bodies making it impossible for his Byakugan to distinguish between the real ninja and his doppelgangers. He also knew that – like all clone techniques – the shadow clone was decidedly fragile. If its form was disrupted in any significant way, the chakra matrix would fail and the clone would be destroyed.

He only had to land a glancing Jyuuken blow in order to take a clone out – though up until this point he had been frustratingly denied the opportunity thanks to the superb teamwork that the clones displayed.

Neji reached back quickly and tapped the attacking clone with an open palm in the stomach, forcing what he deemed as a sufficient amount of chakra into the attack. He didn't even turn his head to assess the effectiveness of his technique – his Byakugan could take care of that for him.

His face didn't even have time to register his shock as his blood-gifted vision followed the fist of the clone right into the back of his head.

Neji was sent tumbling away from his attackers.

The stricken clone disappeared in a cloud of white smoke.

The crowd roared its approval.

Naruto smirked behind his re-breather.

The remaining clones straightened and waited for the Hyuuga to regain his feet. There was no point attacking him when he was down. He was putting on a show here, not fighting for his life.

Or at least he knew that he wasn't. The Hyuuga may have believed differently.

"I see you did your homework, but you seem to have underestimated my technique. You may be able to dispel them with such a weak attack, but not immediately. For that you'll need to use a bit more effort."

Neji's face was murderous as he stood and dusted himself off. Apparently he didn't like being talked down to.

Naruto didn't give him time to respond, though. The two clones rushed the Hyuuga boy at incredible speed and jumped to attack in tandem.

The dark haired boy just stared at them in contempt and, just as they were about to lash out at him, began to spin in place, an aura of blue chakra surrounding him like a cocoon.

The clones dispelled on the wall of energy and Naruto nodded. This was another technique that Hanzou had written about extensively – even going so far as to attempt to modify the technique for his own use. In the end, he'd abandoned the project. A non-Hyuuga body wasn't capable of releasing such a powerful burst of raw chakra from so many tenketsu at once. Still, the legendary ninja had been fascinated by the concept nonetheless. Perhaps it's what had led him to create his "nova of electric death" technique, as Naruto had so lovingly named it.

"I won't be falling for the same trick twice. It's time I stopped playing with your imitations." Neji, it seems, hadn't expected to have to use that technique here.

Too damn bad.

Naruto made four more clones.

"Don't you understand? Your techniques are useless against me. You can't defy your fate – just accept it. You're going to lose to me."

The blond frowned. "You keep talking about fate, and I don't particularly care to hear the reasons, but as I said before, what makes you so sure it's not your fate to lose to me?"

This wasn't the first time that an opponent had insisted on chatting up Naruto. He'd lost count of how many men and women he'd killed who'd had the urge to spill their life stories to him, usually trying to justify their actions – sometimes trying to beg for mercy. Naruto prided himself on being fairly indulgent. They were the poor saps' last words, after all.

Because the stories didn't stop him from killing them.

He might as well play along with the Hyuuga. It would please the crowd, at least.

He just had to make sure he didn't kill the boy out of habit at the end of it. There was no better way to spit on the old man's good graces than that.

"I'm a member of the Hyuuga clan – the strongest in Konoha. Do you honestly believe you ever stood a chance against me? How could fate decide any other outcome?"

Naruto shook his head in exasperation, and then gave a nod to his clones. "I wouldn't know anything about fate. I can't bring myself to think like that, because it causes one to stagnate. What good is trying when failure is obvious? What good is trying your hardest when success is guaranteed?"

The clones rushed forward and circled the Hyuuga, evenly spaced around him.

Neji bent low and settled into a Jyuuken stance. "That's the point, fool. Try as you might, you can't win here. That's why you should have given up when you had the chance."

The clones lunged forward.

Neji spun, the blue chakra whipping around him. Ultimate defense indeed.

But that didn't stop Naruto from wanting to defeat it.

The clones stopped right at the edge of Neji's spin and each raised its right hand in front of it. The ninja watching from the stands gasped in surprise as the telltale distortion of cutting wind surrounded the arms of the clones. It was an A-rank elemental manipulation, after all.

The roar of the crowd picked up yet again when the wind blades pressed against the edge of the ball of chakra. Since Neji's technique spun around the edge of his body in a circular path, the four clones pressed their attacks into the sphere at the same height – even with the clones' chests – and began cutting through at the same latitude of the sphere as one another. The chakra at that height couldn't recover as the four wind blades sliced it apart and the hands of the clones continued to push inward.

Neji was cutting his own technique on Naruto's blades, and he couldn't stop. Not now. If he let go then those blades would be on him.

If he kept spinning, those blades would be on him.

The shock was almost too much to bear.

But Hyuuga Neji wasn't called a genius for nothing.

He held the technique for as long as possible before dropping to the ground and releasing his chakra in a massive burst while still continuing his rotation. The dome of chakra that had surrounded him flattened and bulged out at shin level into a thick disk, knocking all four of the clones off of their feet.

A moment later, they disappeared in a cloud of smoke while Neji stood up panting from the exertion he had just used. He'd never held the Heavenly Spin for that long before.

"Do you play poker, Hyuuga Neji, or is something as unseemly as that beneath your noble self?" Naruto could play the talking game too, and he'd already gotten the crowd's attention with that last ploy. They hung on his every word.

Neji didn't respond, but kept his gaze focused closely on Naruto – who still hadn't moved an inch during their battle.

"I'll assume that you at least know _how_ it's played. Five card draw, yes?" The dark haired boy just glared, so Naruto moved on. "I like to think of life as a game of five card draw. You get your hand at the beginning of the game – that's when you're born – and then you have to make a choice. Do you stick with what you have, content with your lot in life – you can call it fate or what have you – or do you take a chance? Do you strive for something greater than what you're handed? Do you aim to be the very best?

"You were dealt a good hand – let's say a full house. You have a powerful bloodline limit and a powerful family. You live in and fight for a powerful village. Now that's a good deal. You don't really have to try. After all, if you're sitting at a card table with a full house in hand, chances are you're going to win. Out of all of the genin in this village, you might be the very strongest of them all.

"But what if you're sitting in a room full of card players with only a full house in hand? Chances are that someone out there is going to have you beat. Just think of all of the ninja in this village that could defeat you. A full house doesn't look like such a good hand anymore, now does it? Not with the Hokage sitting with a straight flush, the elite jounin with a few fours of a kind, and no small amount of folks with full houses better than your own. You can go far with what you have, but that fate crap you keep preaching…

"That's just you admitting that you're too scared to draw."

Neji was turning purple. He didn't like being dissected. That was what he did to others. Right now, though, his eyes were telling him that his opponent was completely confident, at ease, and even maybe… bored?

It made him furious.

"Do you want to know what I was dealt, Hyuuga?"

The dark haired boy's voice dripped venom. "Why would I give a damn about you or anything about you?"

Naruto ignored him. "I was dealt a joker, Hyuuga. I was dealt a wildcard." He was pacing back and forth slowly now. He really shouldn't get so worked up over this, but not only was it a great way to make an impression on the crowd; it was also somewhat therapeutic.

It was then, standing there in the middle of the ring with the crowd listening to his every word with rapt attention, that he realized that he'd gone too long simply following orders and completing missions – no matter how important they were.

He was sincerely glad that he'd come to Konoha.

"But knowing how to play a joker in life isn't as simple as knowing how to play it in a game of cards. I'm not content with sitting on it. I want more. I want to _win_."

Naruto stopped his pacing and turned to face his opponent once again. "Your fate is to lose, Hyuuga, if that's the only rationale you cling to. Even if it isn't me that defeats you."

The crowd had grown silent during Naruto's musings in order to better hear his words. There was no small number of them that agreed with the Ame ninja. The Hyuuga boy's ramblings about fate were rather unbecoming of a shinobi and all-around distasteful for everyone else.

They could easily hear the Konoha ninja's declaration through the silence.

"Proctor, I intend to kill him."

Naruto's face grew stony behind his re-breather. "Do you really want to cross that line, Hyuuga? You don't know what I'm capable of."

"You're an arrogant, obnoxious fool. Your fate has already been decided. Perhaps when they bury you they'll remember why the Hyuuga, and Konoha, are feared so strongly in a pitiful village like yours."

Neji bolted forward, intent on ending the match. He slowed and his eyes widened in surprise, however, as the short boy in front of him flashed expertly through a short series of hand seals that he had only seen his sensei use before.

"Just who do you think you're insulting?"

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen watched impassively as the match below progressed. If even a fraction of what Naruto and Jiraiya had mentioned to him was true, young Neji had no chance of winning this fight. Naruto was just stringing the boy along.

It was a rather cruel thing to do, but it was probably for the best. Naruto had explained that Hanzou expected a memorable and definitive showing from him, and that failing at that would only increase the Salamander's ire and inspire him to hunt down his once-apprentice. Neji also needed a wake up call, and a thorough beating at the hands of Naruto might just provide that – as cold as it may seem. All of this talk of fate and the Hyuuga's posturing was rather embarrassing for the village – not to mention the painful memories that it brought forth for the old man.

He'd never truly forgiven himself for not finding some alternative to Hizashi's death, and the fact that it still haunted the boy simply compounded his frustration. Even as the strongest Kage in the world, politics and level-headedness had won out at that time. He'd made the best decision in allowing the Hyuuga elders to perpetrate their ruse, but not the _right_ decision.

Naruto's speech made him a bit nervous about what the boy intended to reveal. The fallout would be severe.

Then again, he might not live to see the sun set on his beloved village. It was a sobering thought, but one that he'd had many times before.

At least then the blond boy's revelation would be someone else's to deal with.

Whatever he had expected Naruto to show in his match though, it wasn't this.

He was on his feet before he'd even realized it – his two, jounin guards beside him and an ANBU captain at his side. The Kazekage had risen even faster than Sarutobi's weary bones had allowed and was staring down into the arena with wide eyes as his own guards moved in close to him – their own gazes darting about nervously. Sarutobi scanned the arena quickly. The rest of the small ANBU detail within the stadium had leapt to the railing overlooking the arena floor and waited for orders.

A full third of the spectators had leapt out of their seats and made to act as soon as the enormous plume of smoke had appeared. Many of these were dressed as civilians, but the Hokage could also make out his own Konoha jounin on their feet, warily taking measure of the other standing figures and the spectacle before them.

All of them were ninja. Most were jounin. They were wearing civilian clothing because they were pretending to be anything but highly trained killers. Some of them the Hokage knew by sight. These were the sanctioned "scouts" sent by every ninja village in the world to observe the Chuunin Exam Finals in order to relay the results to their respective leaders. Sarutobi allowed them because it was really for their sake that these exams even existed, and because they were followed nearly everywhere within the city while they visited. They were ninja who were really guests of honor who pretended to be civilians who the Konoha ninja pretended to treat like civilians, but didn't.

It was a complicated political game. These men were no danger, though.

Then again, there were fewer than twenty of _those_ individuals in his city. The rest were undoubtedly Orochimaru's men.

Come to think of it, Sarutobi couldn't have planned this better if he'd wanted to. Thanks to Naruto, his men had marked every single ninja in the stadium able to recognize Salamander Hanzou's infamous summon by sight.

That would make things much easier in a few minutes.

Assuming Ajisuke didn't kill them all, of course.

* * *

Poor Neji looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He didn't have a clue as to what to do. There was a hundred foot monster towering over him – its long body curved around the edge of the arena floor and taking up more than its fair share of space – and that was that.

The Salamander King's massive head turned upwards and a loud intake of air could be heard throughout the silent-as-the-grave stadium. Sarutobi had seen this before many times – it was a ritual of the summon's that he performed whenever he was called to fight. The old amphibian had a keen nose. Sarutobi had learned that the hard way in decades and battles past.

Finally, the monster turned up towards the Kage box, and what could only be described as a wicked smirk stretched the monster's enormous maw revealing rows of small but dangerously sharp teeth within.

"**Greetings, young Sarutobi. It has been long since we last met."** The head turned slightly and its beady eyes focused. The grin grew even wider. **"And congratulations to you, young fighter, on finally achieving the title of 'Fourth.'"**

The Kazekage blinked and gave a small nod of acknowledgement, though Sarutobi was sure that the expression beneath his mask was poisonous.

"I did not expect to see you here, Lord Ajisuke. I don't believe that your presence is entirely… appropriate." Sarutobi's eyes flicked up to Naruto, who stood with his arms crossed atop the salamander's head, his eyes watching the old Hokage's every move. Neji was apparently forgotten for the moment.

The giant creature scanned his surroundings once again, taking his time as he went. Many of the ninja who had leapt to their feet had promptly returned to their seats once the immediate danger seemed to have passed. **"Namikaze. Why have you called me here?"**

Naruto turned back to observe Neji, who could only continue to stare onward in shock and confusion – his head swiveling between the massive summon and the Hokage. "I simply wished to demonstrate how 'pitiful' Ame is, Ajisuke. This fool doubted our power."

Ajisuke bent forward to eye Neji, who had finally regained some of his senses and had backed away from the massive creature and settled into his trademark Jyuuken stance – little good though it was. **"You summoned me here to fight a branch family Hyuuga in a chuunin selection exam? Do you think I have nothing better to do than amuse you, boy?"**

"I was proving a point, as you well know. Now would you please squash this fool for me, or am I going to have to do that myself?"

The monster growled. The stadium shuddered. Someone screamed.

**"Do not call on me again until you find a worthy focus for my attentions, Naruto!"**

"I'll see if I can't think of something, old man."

With that, the arena once again filled with white smoke as the summon made his departure. Naruto fell from his former perch and landed gracefully on the arena floor before straightening and facing Neji.

Whispers erupted from around the arena as the still-standing ninja regained their seats. He and Ajisuke had given them a few things to think about.

"Looks like you lucked out."

Neji had fully regained himself now, and moved closer to Naruto from the edge of the arena where he had retreated. "Pathetic, that you can't even control your own summon."

Naruto laughed. The murmurings of the crowd grew. "Maybe you didn't hear him, Hyuuga. You weren't worth his time."

The shock had bled away and once again, Neji was furious. "How dare you! A fool who hides behind a mask, a summon who won't fight for him, and a false name. Are you too weak to face me yourself? Take off your mask, you miserable failure. I want to see your face when I kill you! I want to see your eyes when you die with my Byakugan – the strongest weapon in Konoha!"

That was all the encouragement that Naruto needed. "You want to see this face? To know my name?" He brought his hands together in front of him, grasped the end of the middle finger on his right glove, and pulled it off.

Those that could see his clawed hand let out gasps of surprise or narrowed their eyes in concentration. They'd already had their hackles raised by names like Namikaze and Naruto being thrown about, though which one they focused on depended on where they called home. After all, no one had been given either of those names in Konoha for over thirteen years.

They were curious, alright.

Naruto peeled the other glove off of his left hand and flexed his clawed fingers. It felt good to finally be able to feel them in the sunlight after a month of hiding them from sight. Then he unclasped the re-breather and faceplate from his head and dumped them on the arena floor along with his gloves. Last came the long bandana that hid his golden hair from sight. It was a relief to once again be able to feel the light breeze in his shaggy mane.

This was much better.

"Well? What do you think of me now, Hyuuga? Am I what you expected?" Naruto's lips twisted into a feral grin, showing off his long fangs to the world. "My name, fool, is Namikaze Naruto. My father was the leader of this village once and the strongest ninja in the world. He sealed the power of the mightiest bijuu – the Nine-Tailed Fox – into me on the day I was born." Naruto crouched low, his arms spread wide and his clawed fingers splayed out cruelly. "So you see, Hyuuga Neji… _I_ am the strongest weapon in Konoha, not your paltry bloodline limit."

The crowd erupted into a cacophony of shouting, screaming, and muttering. Many of the spectators were on their feet again – either yelling obscenities or trying to get a better look at the self-proclaimed son of the infamous Yellow Flash. Naruto glanced at the Kage box to find Sarutobi looking down at him with worry etched across his face and the Kazekage with a mad gleam in his eyes.

"Even if what you say is true, I don't intend to lose!" Neji had had enough of their dialogue. The boy sprinted at Naruto just as he had earlier, but this time the blond just watched him come – his expression eager and his fingers twitching in anticipation.

Just as Neji was about ready to strike, Naruto leapt forward – his claws reaching for Neji's unprotected arms. The Hyuuga boy couldn't attempt tenketsu strikes here – he needed to stop his opponent's forward progress or the claws would shred him. On top of that, Naruto twisted his forearms right as they came within Neji's reach.

It was a disaster for the dark haired boy. He tried to parry the dangerous hands away, but gasped as he felt the sharp claws dig into the palm of his left hand and tear open the forearm of his right arm. It didn't matter if he used Jyuuken against the smaller boy's hands – the claws would still tear at him.

The pain broke Neji's concentration and he caught Naruto's booted foot in his hip, sending him tumbling across the arena floor once again. He sat up quickly and pushed himself to his feet – gritting his teeth as dirt rubbed into the bloody wound on his palm. The Ame ninja's style was too difficult to follow. It was all reflex and nuance – those claws could go anywhere. If he had to describe it, he'd say that it was the opposite of Lee's style – the opposite of how the blond fought against Neji until this point.

Nothing was telegraphed and even glancing blows were painful and dangerous.

The blond just stared at him expressionlessly with those animalistic eyes, body crouched low and arms spread wide in front of him in anticipation of another attack.

Neji growled in anger and frustration. The demonic boy in front of him had been holding back all along – using some knock-off taijutsu style and still managing to keep up with him. Now though… did he even have a chance?

Yes, yes he did. "You're within range of my divination. The fight is over, fool." Neji crouched low and took an exaggerated stance – his hands stretched out one in front and the other behind him – and pushed chakra through his body in preparation of his attack. He'd worked hard to create this – his ultimate technique. It could shut down the chakra system of even the most powerful opponents completely – rendering them unable to fight or even move.

While it wasn't fatal, it would put this brat at his mercy.

He lunged forward with chakra-enhanced speed and aimed for the first two points of his strike – the major tenketsu just inside the shoulder. With those points closed, the arms became almost worthless and preventing the rest of his attack became impossible.

Naruto had barely moved – his open hands still spread wide in front of him. There was no way he could react in time.

Then Neji flinched and stumbled back in astonishment as pain shot up from his fingertips.

It felt like they had been shoved into a garbage disposal. He gasped and stared at his hands, only to find that the tips of his fingers had indeed been rubbed raw by whatever he had hit. He turned his focus to his opponent in disbelief as twin disks of yellow chakra spun in front of his hands – each nearly sixteen inches across.

"Combining the Body Flicker with a tenketsu strike? That's not going to work. Too obvious."

Neji couldn't hide his astonishment and dismay. It was impossible. His strongest technique couldn't have been overcome so easily!

Naruto let his jutsu dissipate and watched as the emotions played out across the Hyuuga's face with mild interest. Had the boy really thought that it would be that easy? That techniques like the Heavenly Spin and whatever he had just tried to use were enough to bring down any ninja he came across? This boy may have been a ninja genius, but a genius he was not.

The blond was actually disappointed.

At least his simple modification of the Rasengan had born some fruit. It wouldn't stop chakra intensive techniques like the Blade of Wind or a full-powered Rasengan, but it could overcome simple taijutsu and thrown weapons.

It was stunningly similar to a tiny Heavenly Spin, now that he thought about it.

Neji just stood and stared. For the first time since the match began, Naruto could make out the despair etched into his face. It was unbecoming of the dark haired boy.

Time to end it, he supposed.

The Hyuuga's nerves were shot. His hand and arm were bleeding – his fingers were burned. He didn't even give much of a reaction as Naruto flashed forward with a Body Flicker of his own and slammed his balled fist into the stunned boy's stomach.

Neji crumpled to the arena floor and passed out.

His fate had caught up with him.

At least he could make a new one tomorrow.

"Winner. Namikaze Naruto." The short blond spoke quietly, but the entire stadium heard him.

The proctor stared at him silently for a moment before looking to the Kage's box. At a nod from the old man, the senbon-sucking jounin called it.

"Winner. Namikaze Naruto!"

There was no cheering. The murmurs grew and grew as the seconds dragged on, but no one called out.

Could it be true?

The medical team rushed out and lifted the Hyuuga boy onto a stretcher that they had brought along with them, making no effort to hide their curious glances towards the feral boy.

Naruto ignored them and began to walk off the field towards the stairway that led up to the competitor's balcony. He'd done his part. Now he just had to wait for the fireworks to begin.

"You forgot your gear."

The proctor was gesturing towards Naruto's discarded armor and accessories.

"I don't need them. Not anymore." The blond kept walking off of the field. He planned to never wear anything even resembling Hanzou's outfit ever again.

As he neared the opening to the stairwell, his eyes were drawn to the familiar sight and sound of a ninja appearing from a Body Flicker. Not fifteen feet in front of him stood Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke amidst a flurry of fluttering leaves. Kakashi's visible eye was glued to him in obvious shock, while Sasuke simply stared suspiciously.

"Is it really you?" The masked jounin's voice held a strange quality to it that Naruto couldn't quite place. Was it relief?

The blond nodded and continued walking towards the man, eager to get off of the arena floor and out from under the stares of the crowd.

He could feel Kakashi's eye on his back as he stepped around the elite ninja and continued up the stairs. He didn't need more time in the spotlight right now. Better to let the shock sink in a bit. He'd certainly have enough to deal with after the day was over as it was.

Gaara was standing at the top of the staircase.

Naruto smelt blood.

Wonderful.

The sandy haired boy stared at him with intensity and started down the stairs. As he drew closer, Naruto could make out a mad gleam dancing in his eyes. The Ichibi container was truly sick.

A small part of Naruto felt sympathy, but a much larger part of him – the same part that remembered the mad jinchuuriki's attempt to kill him without provocation and threatened to cut out the mad boy's eye – felt nothing but contempt.

This would not be a good day for Sabaku no Gaara.

They passed one another without a second glance. Nothing needed to be said between them.

Naruto didn't look for the bodies.

He emerged from the stairwell onto the competitor's balcony to find all eyes on him. Until he met their stares, that is. The only two that returned his looks were Shino and Sai. Or so it appeared. He couldn't see the Aburame's eyes behind his sunglasses, after all.

Naruto stepped up the balcony to stand beside Gaara's older sister, Temari. She tensed up a bit when she noticed that he had chosen to stand next to her and pretended to be fixated on the two fighters squaring off below. For a kunoichi that he had pegged at mid-chuunin level, she didn't seem to be very good at disguising her glances at him out of the corner of her eye.

Maybe it was nerves.

Maybe it was the fact that he was staring her up and down without pretense.

"What?" His attentions were obviously making her nervous. She probably shouldn't have spoken, though. Her question provided an excellent excuse for the rest of the assembly to once again focus on Naruto, and by association, her.

Naruto didn't reply immediately, continuing to devour her appearance with his eyes.

She was hot, after all.

And older.

_And_ blonde.

He liked that.

"Nothing." He finally turned his attention back to the match below, which was just about to start. Normally he'd never be caught staring at a woman in public like that – he wasn't Jiraiya, after all – but who would suspect him "checking out" the competition in these circumstances? They simply assumed that he was actually checking the competition out.

He'd take what he could get, thank you very much.

Naruto spent most of Sasuke and Gaara's match stealing glances at the young woman beside him. He was much better at it than she had been, though that may have been due to the fact that she was focused entirely on the match below and was practically radiating nervous anticipation.

He didn't particularly care about the fight raging in the arena – the outcome was assured. The Uchiha did manage to surprise him with his massive increase in speed over the month break, however. It seemed that the boy had mastered enhancing his movements with his chakra in order to overcome the speed of Gaara's sand. The biggest surprise was when the boy backed off from the Suna ninja's sand-ensconced form and summoned Hatake Kakashi's famous technique – the Chidori.

It was truly impressive that the Uchiha had learned so much over the break in the exam, though Naruto had a guess that his Sharingan eyes had had a hand in his success.

Naruto had to suppress a frown at the way the match was going. That jutsu was going to tear through Gaara's earth-based sand shield like a marble thrown through tissue paper.

This had the potential to get ugly a lot sooner than Naruto had expected.

The blood curdling scream and the massive sand-made arm that answered the attack only succeeded in aggravating his concerns.

He didn't want to have to fight the Ichibi in the middle of Konoha.

Glancing to his side, he found both of Gaara's siblings trembling in horror, their eyes wide and glued to the scene below. It was a bit sad to think that the boy terrified even his own siblings.

Then the genjutsu began.

It was a fairly obvious and low-level mass-effect sleep technique – though the ninja that used it had to have been fairly powerful in order to subdue the entire stadium. The Suna ninja formed hand seals to dispel the technique almost immediately. They had been expecting it, but so had Naruto. The Konoha ninja quickly followed suit, though Shikamaru hesitated. There was something to be said for being able to sleep through the chaos, after all.

The pale boy Sai was watching the three foreign ninja intently – his right hand held loosely at his side next to his sheathed ninja-to. He obviously didn't trust them to behave themselves.

Naruto didn't form hand seals. He didn't need to. Instead, he forced the chakra running through his body to surge momentarily in what Pain had called a Chakra Flex. It was one of the surprisingly simple to understand yet incredibly difficult to master abilities that the man had forced Naruto to master in his youth, and it had taken a whole four months for the blond to learn it properly.

Normally, a ninja learned to dispel ninjutsu by forcefully stopping his chakra flow and disrupting the influence that the genjutsu user had on his chakra system. The downside of this, of course, was that the ninja that was trying to break the jutsu had to stop his chakra flow – necessitating him to slow down his movement and keeping him unable to use any ninja techniques until the genjutsu was cancelled.

The Chakra Flex dispelled a genjutsu by overpowering the caster's control with a rush of chakra through the ninja's system. It was an incredibly difficult skill to master, and as far as Naruto knew it was a technique of Pain's own creation. The advantages of this ability were that the Flexing ninja could continue to fight at full capacity while the genjutsu was overpowered and could do so without the use of hand seals. On the other hand, only a ninja with high chakra reserves and the ability to call on them in an instant could learn the technique. It was incredibly effective against low and medium level illusions, but against powerful, focused techniques – the sort that an Uchiha might cast on a single opponent with his Sharingan – Flexing was ineffective.

It worked well enough for this occasion, at least.

Naruto grabbed Temari's hand where it clutched railing in front of her, gripping tightly as the girl gasped and tried to pull away. The short boy leaned in close to her and began to speak. He only hoped that she listened. It would make his job much easier later on. "If your brother transforms here, one of the Konoha jounin will kill him."

The Suna kunoichi just stared at him with wide eyes.

"Don't believe they aren't capable of it. If you want him to live, you have to get him out of the city."

He released her hand, but she didn't move right away. Kankuro looked on with a confused expression on his painted face.

"Well get going, don't you know there's a war on?"

The two Suna ninja gave one another a quick glance before jumping over the railing and down to the floor below, where Naruto spotted their jounin sensei standing over Gaara – who seemed to have been weakened by the Uchiha's attack.

He had to reach out and grab Sai's wrist as he tried to go after them. Naruto spun in place and threw the pale boy back towards Shino and Shikamaru, where he came skidding to a stop with his hand resting on the hilt of his short sword.

Naruto looked between the three quickly before speaking. "Let them go. Believe me when I say that you don't want an insane jinchuuriki transforming in the middle of town. None of you would be a match for him anyway. In case you haven't noticed, your village is under attack."

The three Konoha ninja took a moment to let his words soak in. Surprisingly, it was Shino that spoke up. "And what of you? We can't let an Ame ninja run around the village as he pleases."

Naruto looked out over the stadium floor, where the examiner had begun to face off with the Suna jounin. The four genin – Sasuke, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro – were nowhere in sight. "I'm going to find the Hokage."

With that, he disappeared from the balcony in a gust of swirling wind.

* * *

Naruto grabbed the flapping black cloak and pulled, dragging the masked man to the tiled roof just before reaching the strange purple barrier. He let go as the man twisted out of his grip and turned to face the boy, his three comrades landing in a circle around him.

The jinchuuriki ignored the hostile stances of the four ANBU and stood calmly facing the one he had pulled out of the air. "Do you know what that is, ninja?"

The man didn't answer, instead turning his masked face to the only member of the squad wearing a white cloak.

"No?" Naruto shook his head in exasperation. "Then don't fucking touch it."

Then again, he'd never seen anything quite like it either. Best to ask someone who had. "How do we break this thing, old man?" His eyes darted between the four Sound ninja at the corners of the massive technique. They were protected completely by the field that they had created.

Sarutobi did his best to keep his eye on Orochimaru while glancing over at Naruto. At a nod from him, the white-cloaked captain gave a signal and the four ANBU relaxed their stances.

Naruto didn't seem to notice.

"One of the four creating the barrier must be neutralized, but as you can see, that isn't possible now." The old man didn't seem too perturbed by that fact.

"The roof?"

The Hokage shook his head, causing the long cloth streamers flowing from his battle helmet to dance through the shimmering purple of the barrier. "The technique will have extended below the roof as well. It seems that I'm on my own in here."

Naruto turned his head at the sound of an arrogant chuckle. Something about it make his skin crawl. It was unnatural.

"But that suits you just fine, doesn't it, sensei? You'd rather not have anyone get in your way." The man was incredibly pale, with strange purple discolorations around his eyes and odd, yellow irises. He even emphasized his words in a way that mimicked how a snake might speak.

The jinchuuriki scowled. Here was a traitor of traitors. A disgusting worm that cared for nothing but himself – destroying and corrupting wantonly without any thought to the damages he leveled on the world around him. A man with no purpose but to see his own twisted ends achieved.

Naruto had never met him before, but he already despised Orochimaru.

"So this is what a man who is about to lose a war looks like? I would have thought you'd be a bit humbler, but then again, you never expected to win, did you?"

The snake-like eyes found his slit ones, and the man sneered. "This attack may never have had a chance of succeeding, child, but I will still take my prize. Or perhaps your master never taught you of such a concept, despite living it through countless battles. How is the old man, by the way? Still reveling in his own sense of superiority?"

"Time may have humbled him somewhat, though it seems unlikely that the same can be said for you, traitor. I'll tell you this – were it worth my master's efforts he would gladly kill you."

The missing ninja looked on coldly. "Traitor, you say? Have I defied that fool's expectations, then? If he is so upset then why not settle with me himself instead of sending his _pet_ to parrot his words? Be gone child, I have a score to settle with the old man and no time to play games with the likes of you. Your days are numbered, regardless."

Naruto couldn't help but bare his fangs at that. Everything about the man was so repulsive that Naruto felt the need to kill him right then and there, if only it were within his power.

Someday.

Someday soon.

"Naruto. Where is Gaara?"

The blond boy turned to the Hokage and his face softened. "My shadow clones are tracking him right now. His brother and sister took him and fled the city, probably so that he could recover. I intend to fight him outside the city proper."

The old man nodded, his eyes still focused on his former student. "Are you sure you can do this alone? The Shukaku's power…"

"Don't worry old man. I'm a professional, after all. It'll be taken care of. Just focus on this fight and I'll tell you all about it later." Naruto gave his one-time grandfather a small smile when his head turned towards the boy slightly.

They both knew that that conversation was unlikely to ever happen.

"Still, Jiraiya is in the city. If you need his assistance, just find him."

"He has other things to worry about. I'm sure Aji and I can handle it. After all, what sort of bijuu hunter would I be if I couldn't even handle the Ichibi?"

The Hokage gave a small smile at Naruto's antics. He could still see a small glimpse of the young boy he once knew all those years ago. "Be careful, Naruto. Find Jiraiya when this is all over – he'll help you with whatever you may need."

The blond's face tightened. It was time he said goodbye.

* * *

Sasuke was thrown through the air once again by Gaara's massive sand arm. The fight wasn't going in his favor at all. Truth be told, he had no real idea of what he was dealing with. He'd never seen – or even heard – of a ninja using sand like the Suna shinobi did.

On top of that, the mad boy seemed to be slowly but surely losing whatever small hold on sanity that he had. Even his own sister looked terrified of the massive, disfigured, drooling beast he had become.

He was over his head, Sasuke knew, but he couldn't bring himself to back down. He'd worked so hard over the last month trying to improve as much as possible just to beat this opponent. Well, him and the Ame ninja, though Sasuke understood from Kakashi's explanation of the Chidori that the jutsu was specifically geared towards defeating the sand user.

Lightning defeated earth, after all.

He wasn't sure if he'd be willing to use the assassination technique against the Rain boy. Maybe he would have gone out of his way to merely maim him. Then again, the boy had called himself the son of the Fourth Hokage and claimed to have the Kyuubi's power within him, whatever that nonsense was.

But Kakashi seemed to believe it.

None of those musings helped in his current situation, however.

He needed to become stronger. Stronger than Gaara. Stronger than Namikaze Naruto. Stronger than _Itachi_.

He couldn't lose here.

The cursed seal flared up. Pain arced through his body from the mark on his neck, whispering to his subconscious. He tried to ignore it – tried to push it back yet again.

But he wanted that _power_.

Power as strong as that of the demon he was fighting.

"You're too weak!" Sasuke could only stare at the screaming monster before him who barely sounded human any longer.

He wasn't weak.

"You're too soft because your hatred isn't strong enough!"

He hated. He hated so much. This _thing_ had no idea how much he _hated_.

"The power to hate is the power to kill. The power to kill is the power of vengeance!"

He would kill him. He would.

"Your hatred is weaker than mine! Do you know what that means?"

Shut up. He didn't want to hear this.

_Live a wretched life._

Shut up.

_Come before me._

Shut up!

_To measure my… capacity._

"Shut up!"

"It means that you're weaker than me!"

The Chidori. He'd kill this monster with it. He'd kill his brother with it.

But the pain wouldn't let him think about those things. His third Chidori of the day was spent. The cursed seal ached on his neck. He knew that it had activated again.

He collapsed.

He could still hear the monster moving behind him.

It was over.

Then he heard a frustrated, inhuman growl from Gaara and the squelch of wet… Oh.

"Trouble in paradise, princess?"

Oh, no. God no. Not now.

"Sasuke! Are you alright?"

He almost wished that Gaara had killed him. Better that than dealing with these two nitwits.

They were his teammates, though. "You have to get out of here, he's too strong."

"Beauty not working out with the beast? No fairytale ending? I thought he'd sweep you right off your feet."

"God dammit, Sai! We have to get out of here! You don't know…"

The pale boy's voice cut him off. "He's the Ichibi jinchuuriki. Of course you're not strong enough to win. Sakura, grab her majesty and I'll hold off Gaara until some help arrives or we can flee."

Sasuke had liked the pale boy much better when he'd been a socially retarded robot. Now thanks to Sakura's "help" he was almost intolerable. And he knew it, too.

"I suppose that's my cue."

It was the Ame ninja – Naruto. A few of him, actually. The three figures were standing on an overhead branch nonchalantly, as if there wasn't a psychotic sand monster crushing the large black birds that flapped around its head with manic glee.

Gaara smashed the last of Sai's animated creations in his enormous, disfigured fist and turned to stare up at the blond, spittle dripping out of the corner of his gaping maw as his tongue lolled sickeningly.

He laughed. There was not an ounce of sanity in the sound he made. His lopsided body shook and twitched in his madness.

The Ame ninja simply looked on with an expression of pure disgust as the Sand ninja lost himself.

With a shriek, Gaara cried out.

"I knew you'd come! I knew you'd come! Mother will have your blood!"

Sasuke silently thanked whatever deities were watching him that someone had drawn the monster's attention. He didn't even argue when Sakura pulled him protectively to her.

He was safe. He survived. Everything was alright.

Until he realized that, once again, he had been too weak to save anyone.

* * *

**Next Chapter:** _Crazy Train_ by Ozzy Osbourne


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